


Only Us

by OhsheisnotFrench



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Christine/Jeremy (Brief), Dear Evan Hansen References, F/F, M/M, Minor Rich Goranski/Michael Mell, Pinkberry, Recreational Drug Use, Rich and Michael are together for like only half of the first chapter, Same with Christine and Jeremy, Swearing, The Lighting Thief Musical References, boyf riends - Freeform, richjake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:07:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 76,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23722096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhsheisnotFrench/pseuds/OhsheisnotFrench
Summary: After the SQUIP Incident, things were going pretty well. Christine and Jeremy have been dating for about 2 months and Rich and Michael have been going steady for about a month. Things have been different between Michael and Jeremy but no one is really pointing it out. Sometimes you are just meant to end up with your best friend.
Relationships: Brooke Lohst/Chloe Valentine, Jake Dillinger/Rich Goranski, Jeremy Heere/Michael Mell
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	1. The Double Date + Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically, a flashback to show what happened between Rich and Michael and Jeremy and Christine. Plus Michael and Jeremy 4/20 blazin it (As you can probably tell, I've never smoked before)

(Smoking in this chapter)

Today was the day that..well everyone has been waiting for. Ever since the SQUIP incident had happened, Jeremy and I had done almost anything to fix our friendship. Of course, what he did hurt me a lot, but I could never hate him. I cared for him, way more than I cared for basically anyone else. Before that moment, he was always there for me. The day I broke my arm after trying to bike down a hill, the day I had gotten my wisdom teeth removed and was put on that weird medicine and the day I came out. That day was probably the scariest out of any other moment. I didn't know exactly how he would react but to my surprise, he didn't even bat an eye. He just said,

"Cool, now, I'm gonna get some chips."

I had to repeat what I said, thinking he didn't hear me but he assured me he did, he just didn't think it really mattered. Ok, not the best wording but he just said that that doesn't change anything for him. I was his best friend regardless and that's when it happened. It hit me in the face harder than the one time Rich when he was rude towards Jeremy and me, launched a soccer ball into my face. And trust me, that hurt a lot. I was crushing on Jeremy, and that crush only got more and more strong as time passed. The thing was, I was kinda already starting to think I liked Jeremy. I liked everything about him. Soon enough, even my moms noticed it. And not too long after that, I realized it was more than a crush. Everyone kinda knew before I did apparently, even Mr. Heere. To be fair, I feel like there was a misinterpretation of words on my part, but his reaction didn't seem shocked. The moment he told me he liked Christine, I never felt more crushed. I did whatever I could to help Jeremy out, no matter how much it pained me. Even though I was head over heels for him, I still wanted him to be happy. 

If I wasn't the cause of his happiness, it was fine as long as he was happy. After the SQUIP incident, Jeremy had asked out Christine and she said yes. Obviously, it didn't make me ecstatic but it was the happiest he's been in a while so I put on a fake smile and helped him as much as I could. I tried to get into a relationship to get my mind off of Jeremy and that's when Rich came in. He had started hitting on me while I went to visit Jeremy in the hospital. I put all my focus onto Jeremy and making sure he was ok, I barely noticed Rich was there. That sounds horrible the more I think about it but it's true. Jeremy kept telling me that Rich had a thing for me but I was more focused on how I was getting my best friend back. I also didn't believe him because no one had ever shown interest in me before. Eventually, though, Jeremy was happy with Christine and I was content with Rich. He's a nice guy once you get to know him, but for a while, he didn't like Jeremy. He never told me why he just didn't. After a while, he finally started being cool with Jeremy and that was awesome. But things started to change between Jeremy and I but I couldn't tell what it was. Christine suggested that Rich and I went on a double date with her and Jeremy. I didn't want to go like at all. I didn't want to see Jeremy and Christine being all happy but in order to hide that I liked Jeremy, I agreed instantly. To my surprise, Jeremy was very hesitant to accept the idea of the double date but eventually, he agreed. Christine had planned for us to go ice skating. 

Now don't get me wrong, I loved ice skating but I still didn't really want to go. He had gone ice skating plenty of times, to the point where I was actually kinda good at it. I mean, I was no Christine but I was way better than Jeremy, who was a complete disaster the moment he even put on the skates. It's not like Jeremy and I haven't ever gone ice skating but he was just horrible at it and refused to stop hugging the wall every time we went. The moment Jeremy stepped on the ice, he was a danger to anyone around him. He started slipping and without even thinking, I grabbed him and helped him. I led him onto the ice and started trying to teach him. I had completely forgotten him and I was on dates with other people. At that moment, all that mattered to me was Jeremy. I kept fake threatening to let him go and he literally clung onto me as tight as he could. My heart soared at this. He told me that if I dared let him go, he'd tell my moms to ground me till we graduated. Obviously, that wouldn't have happened but I didn't want to let him go. I wondered if this was what a real date would Jeremy feel like, but then I felt awful. I was literally with Rich. He didn't deserve this. I was gonna have to break up with him soon, I just didn't know how to do it. It was eating away at me slowly. I knew it was a bad idea to date someone while I was head over heels for Jeremy, but I thought that the feeling would fizzle out After we went skating, we went to Pinkberry. Jeremy and I tried to see who made the best combination of flavors. I then looked at Rich and he didn't look sad, but he didn't look happy either. I tried to spend more time with him but Jeremy kept... well being Jeremy. No matter how many times I tried to joke around with Rich, he just didn't really get my jokes and they fell flat but with Jeremy, it was completely different. He would just keep adding onto it until neither of us could breathe. He was amazing like that, not that Rich wasn't amazing, he was, he just wasn't Jeremy. I didn't mean to be rude and leave them out, it just sorta happened. Rich was the one who picked me up and the car ride after ice cream was super awkward. I was about to apologize but he told me he didn't want an apology.

"Michael, I get it, It's never been me, has it?"

I didn't know what to say. If I lied to him, I'd feel awful because I lied but if I told him the truth, I would feel awful because I wasted his time.

"Don't answer, your silence is enough."

"Rich, I am so sorry, I never meant to hurt you, Honestly, you deserve so much better than I've given you. I've been awful towards you and I regret it."

"Michael, really it's ok, I haven't been truly honest either. I mean, I did have something for you but that was nothing compared to what I felt for someone else. I get it, Michael."

"Thank you, I know you said it's ok, but I really am sorry for wasting your time."

"It was fun while it lasted Michael. Some things just aren't meant to work, you're a great dude, dude. If Jeremy doesn't see that, then he isn't worth your time. Besides, I kinda knew that you never really felt anything for me when you kept refusing to kiss me or anything like that. I'm not mad, I'm happy you didn't try to force yourself into anything you didn't want to do."

Call me old fashioned but I wanted my first kiss with someone I loved. Rich was an amazing friend and I did have some feelings for him, but not serious enough for a good, long lasting relationship or anything.

"We can still be friends, right? You really are awesome Rich and I'd hate to lose you as my friend."

"Of course dude, who else would you have your gay rants about Jeremy to?" He said with a laugh.

I couldn't help but laugh at Rich.

"I really am sorry for everything I did to you and Jeremy."

"Rich, it's ok, I heard about the SQUIP from Jeremy, I hate that you had to go through that, especially to "be cool" because, in my opinion, the real you is pretty cool," I said as I bumped his shoulder.

"I hope you know, we've been at your house for a few minutes now."

"Wait really?"

I looked out the window and he was right, the white of my house started back at me.

"Oh, I guess so."

I started getting my stuff together so I could let him go home.

"One more thing before I leave, I think you deserve to know, the reason I didn't like Jeremy for a while was that when I asked him if you were single, he said that you two were together. Then I found out he asked Christine out and I was mad because I thought he was cheating on you. He told me that he had been lying about dating you that whole time. Please don't be mad at him, I probably shouldn't have told you, but I felt you deserved to know."

"Thanks, Rich, I appreciate it. Goodnight, drive safe."

"Thanks, Mikey, goodnight."

I gave him a small wave.

"Wait, Rich?"

"What's up?"  
"It's Jake, isn't it?"

Rich seemed to be confused but he finally understood. He hesitated a bit before giving an answer.

"Yeah, it is."

I smiled, though I'm not sure he could see it in the darkness of the night.

"Well, Jake is a lucky dude."

"I know, I am pretty great." He said with a laugh.

"Can't argue there."

"Shut up Mikey and go have your dreams about kissing Jeremy."

"Maybe I will!"

We both laughed and said goodbye once more as he drove off.

I took the keychain off my bag and grabbed my house key off of it. I slowly unlocked the door.

"Ma? Nanay?" I called out.

"I'm in the kitchen! Nanay is in the room!" Ma called out.

"Just wanted to let you know that I'm back," I said as I headed upstairs.

"Wait, Mikey! Rich isn't with you? He usually comes in for a few minutes, is he ok?"

"No ma, actually, Rich and I aren't together anymore. He's ok though, we are both ok. We are still friends and all."

"Oh baby, I'm so sorry." She rushed out of the kitchen and engulfed me into a hug.

"It's ok ma, really, it was a mutual thing, we both have feelings for other people."

"I knew you weren't over Jeremy."

"Who said that it was Jeremy?"

My mother just looked at me.

"Ok, yeah, it's Jeremy."

"Anak, I know, I'm not stupid."

"Never said you were ma.' I said with a smile.

"Wanna tell me about this double date?"

"Do you really wanna hear about it? It's probably just gonna..."

"Turn into a rant about how cute Jeremy is?"

"Ma!"

"Am I wrong?" She asked, giving me another look.

"You already know the answer to that," I said as I sat down on the couch.

"Well go on, I wanna hear this." She said, sitting down next to me on the couch.

"Well, we went ice skating, as I said earlier, and after all the times Jeremy and I went ice skating, you would think he'd be better at it."

"That boy? Yeah right, he's the most clumsy person I've ever met and I've met your nanay."

I rolled my eyes and chuckled. I then went and told her everything. Every time I mention the fact that I talked to my moms about stuff like that, I get weird stares, like is that not normal? My ma was a great listener, not the best advice giver but she listened and at that moment, that was enough. The advice-giver was nanay but I didn't want to bother her. I even told ma about the thing Rich had told me before he left.

"I feel like Jeremy was jealous that Rich was trying to be with you."

"Ma, come on, don't get my hopes up like that."

"I'm not trying to anak, I'm giving my opinion. Why else would he lie about it?"

I was gonna say something but I didn't really have anything logical to say. In all honesty, I had no logical reason, Jeremy would lie like this. I was going to say that Jeremy hated being put on the spot but he would've immediately corrected himself. Did that mean... I had a chance with Jeremy? My dreams are coming true? I can't believe it... wait, I'm an idiot, Christine. It's always been Christine with him.

"But ma, Christine." I reminded her.

"Mikey, baby, did you forget, that maybe, possibly, he could be trying to hide his feelings?"

"But why would he do that ma?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course ma, what is it?"

"Why don't you tell Jeremy?"

"I've said this like a million times, I don't know if he likes me and I don't want to ruin 12 years of friendship over a dumb crush, well it's not even really a crush anymore but..." It dawned on me that what she asked wasn't a random question.

"Think about it, ok?"

"I will."

"Good, I hate seeing you upset."

"I love you Ma."

"I love you too Mikey."

I gave her a quick hug and wished her goodnight before I went to my room. I thought about saying goodnight to nanay but once she hit the pillow, she was out like a light. Once I entered my room, I sat on my bed. I couldn't get what Rich had said out of my head. Suddenly, I had gotten a text from someone. I glanced at it and my heart fluttered.

Player Two

Can I come over?

My fingers danced over my keyboard before typing a quick reply.

Sent to Player Two

Of course, dude, need a ride?

There was no answer for a new minute which had made me scared. Is Jeremy ok? If Jeremy was hurt, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. What would I do without him? I never even got to tell him-- another beep, signaling a text from Jeremy.

Player Two

I'm here. Can you open the door?

I don't think I've ever ran so fast to the door. I swung the door open and there stood a teary-eyed Jeremy.

"Hey Jere, what's wrong?"

He didn't say anything, he just started full-on crying. I quickly pulled him into a hug. He was mumbling random things into my shoulder that I couldn't understand whatsoever.

"Jeremy, dude, I can't understand you when you are talking into my shoulder, how about we go downstairs and talk, possibly get high and forget the world, how does that sound?" I asked.

He pulled away from me and nodded. We made our way into the basement.

"Want me to go grab one of the consoles so we can play a game?"

To my surprise, Jeremy shook his head.

"Must be serious if you don't wanna play video games, what's wrong Jeremy?"

"Micah, why am I not good enough?"

Now that of all things, wasn't what I was expecting him to say.

"Jere, what do you mean, you are perfect dude."

"No, I'm not, Christine... she... she broke up with me." He started crying more.

"Oh Jere, I'm so sorry, you didn't deserve that."

"She didn't even give me a clear answer of why either, she just said that we both needed to figure things out. I... can't think of anything that I need to figure out, I think she just wanted to let me down gently, she's nice like that, you know? In reality, she probably broke up with me because I was a horrible boyfriend to her, I mean look at tonight. I barely paid any attention to her, and it was the best date I've ever been on. Oh god Micah, I'm worse than I thought!" He ranted.

"Jeremy, you weren't a horrible boyfriend, your relationship with Christine was your first real relationship ever, you know, without the SQUIP. You are still new to the whole dating thing."

"But look at you! You never had a relationship and you and Rich are all happy!"

"Jere, Rich and I broke up tonight..."

Jeremy took off his glasses in order to wipe his eyes.

"I- what? I don't... I don't understand. You two were perfect."

"The feelings just weren't there. Some things just aren't made to work out."

"Did you steal that from Rich?" Jeremy asked with a small chuckle.

"Of course I did," I said with a smile.

"Now I was promised a chance of getting high."

"Of course your majesty," I said with a bow.

"Silence you peasant, or I'll banish you."

"Oh no! Please don't banish me from the furry kingdom!" I fake pleaded.

"Still not a furry."

I just waved him off and went to get the proper stuff. I felt bad for multiple people here. Of course, I felt horrible about Rich, I know he said it was ok and now that he likes Jake, he has a chance of being happy, but I still wasted his time. He even said he felt something for me and I felt almost nothing for him. Don't get me wrong, he would cause me to blush like all the time, but that was because he was Rich and he was quite... suggestive with his compliments. He wasn't like that always but most of the time, he was. I also felt bad for Christine, I mean, I don't know the exact reason for their breakup, but I have a feeling I had some part in it. I really felt bad for Jeremy. He's liked Christine since the eighth grade. He even took the SQUIP to be cool enough for her. In all fairness, if I were offered the SQUIP instead of Jeremy and was told I'd get Jeremy, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I always hated seeing Jeremy upset like this. The last time he was this upset is when his mother left. I haven't liked that woman ever since. To be fair, I never really liked her much to begin with. I've always been closer to Jeremy's dad. His mom would kinda just forget Jeremy and I were there. I finally found my stash and headed back to Jeremy. I knew my moms would be mad at me for smoking but Jeremy needed it right now, hopefully they'd understand. Knowing them, they will.  
"Ah, the peasant brought the stuff."

"Be quiet and take it."

And like that, we got high. Well, Jeremy... he was a different case. He was awful at smoking, and when I say awful, I mean he was really awful. He would always end up coughing it up, even when he claimed he was getting better. We would always have to end up shotgunning it. I never minded of course but now, it all felt different. I wasn't sure if he had felt it too, but something was there. Suddenly, Jeremy's lips were on mine. WAIT, JEREMY WAS KISSING ME. I had no clue what to do so I kinda just sat there. Jeremy pulled away and just looked at me.

"If you wanna do this, you kinda gotta do something, Micah." He said with a chuckle.

"You... you don't want this, Jere, you're high."

"Barely, I'm slightly buzzed Mikey and you know that."

"Do you want this?"

"If you do, maybe this is what Christine was talking about."

I didn't say anything, I just leaned into him. Kissing Jeremy was definitely a new experience. Well, kissing anyone, in general, was a new experience. All the times you see a kiss happen in movies or books, they talk about fireworks and the world spinning and all that, but I didn't get that. I felt like nothing else mattered at that moment except for Jeremy. I felt comfortable, like that's where my lips belonged. Sure, I thought it super awkward since I was so inexperienced. Also my glasses got in the way, but it felt perfect in its own nature.

"Wow." Was all I could say.

"Wow is right, for never kissing someone, you're pretty good."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

It was quiet for a few minutes, and I wasn't sure how to feel. There was this burning in my chest and I wanted to say something, anything to ask what this meant for us. Were we gonna act like this never happened? Was this gonna continue with no strings attached? Was I just a rebound for Jeremy? I mean, that would make sense. He really liked Christine and they broke up. Maybe he just needed something to make him feel better and once he got over Christine, he'd dump me to the curb. He'll leave me all alone again, I can't do this without him, not again.

"Micah, what's wrong?"

I shook my head and forced a smile.

"Micah, tell me."

"I'm fine Jere."

"Alright, if you say so. I'll always be here for you, and I know I said that before and I broke that promise, and I can't change the past, but I can promise that for the future, I'll always be there for you."

"That's all I can ever ask for," I said with a smile.

Jeremy looked stunning, Even though his eyes were red from crying, he still looked amazing.

"Hey Jere, what.. What does this mean for us... the whole kissing thing... you know. I..." Here I go, I gotta tell him, he deserves to know.

"I like you, Jeremy, I have for a long time now, I've been so scared to tell you in fear you would hate me but since you kissed me, I thought..."

"Hey, look Mikey..."

Oh, this is the moment where he shoots me down completely. The moment I've been waiting for, just don't cry Michael. You've been expecting this, don't cry now.

"I... I need to think about all of this, I really did like Christine and I need some time, I'm not saying never, I'm just saying not right now, I really just need some time to think. I do like you Mikey, I do, it's just too soon for me. I know I kissed you first and it's very unfair for me to expect you to wait and I understand if you don't want to wait for me, but if you are willing to, I'd be more than willing to try something more with you."

"I would wait forever for you."

Tears of joy were filling my eyes. I never once before thought I had a chance with Jeremy and now, I do. All I have to do is wait a little longer, which for Jeremy, I would really wait forever, he was just worth it for me.

"Stop being such a sap." He said with a smile and he lightly slapped my shoulder.

"Can't help it Heere."

"Yeah Yeah, I'm tired."

"Me too Jere, wanna head upstairs now?"

"Can we just sleep down here?"

"You mean Heere?"

"Michael I swear..."

"I'm kidding Jeremy, I mean there is the couch but like it's gonna be impossible to sleep with any room."

"I'm ok with that, I don't feel like walking upstairs."

"I'll go grab you some blankets and pillows."

I quietly walked up the stairs to not wake up my moms. I grabbed two blankets and two pillows for Jeremy. He was always weird with his pillow situation like one day he needs like 3 pillows and other days he doesn't want any. I brought them to him and he gratefully took them.

"Well, unlike you, I'm not lazy and I'm gonna head upstairs to sleep."

"You aren't gonna stay with me?" Jeremy asked.

"I mean, there is barely enough space on the couch for one person Jere."

"We can squeeze in."

"I'm not so sure Jere..."

"Please Micah?"

Jeremy knew perfectly well that I can't say no to him when he calls me Micah.

"Fine," I said quickly and laid down on the couch.

He laid down in front of me. He grabbed my arm and wrapped it over himself.

"You know, I could've walked up the stairs, but I just wanted to lay here with you."

"So I could've actually been able to move but nooo, Jeremy wants to be difficult."

"Yeah, basically."

"Whatever, I'm going to sleep, you dork."

"Mikey... Wait."

"What's up Jere?"

There was a certain nervousness to his voice that made me scared.

"I really am sorry about... well everything, you deserve so much better than that."

"Jer, I've forgiven you a long time ago, it's fine, really it is, I know what you did was wrong and it hurt but I'm not gonna hold it against you forever."

Jeremy shifted to face me.

"You are the best Micah."

"I know," I said with a chuckle.

"Goodnight Jer."

"Goodnight Micah."


	2. Jeremy's Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy finally figures out his feels and leaves Michael to not suffer anymore.

Two weeks later, Jeremy finally had an answer for me. Now, every day during these weeks was slowly killing me. I realized that it sounds kinda selfish and needy. I knew Jeremy needed his time and I fully respected that. I never wanted to make him uncomfortable and upset, but the wait made it so nerve-wracking. Would he realize that it was all just a high mistake and that he didn't want to actually be with me? I would totally understand, I mean, I know I'm not the best guy in the world and I could never deserve someone as wonderful as Jeremy. Plus, he just found out he was bi not too long ago. Just because he's bi, doesn't mean that he just wants any guy or girl he can get. Also, what if we got together and broke up? I mean obviously the dream scenario would be that it doesn't happen but if it were to happen, hopefully, it would be a mutual decision. If it were a messy breakup and we stopped being friends, I would be alone. I mean, yeah I had Rich, Jake, Chloe, Brooke, Jenna, and Christine but if I were to lose Jeremy, I would be devastated. My heart was racing when I had gotten the message.

Player Two

Can we talk? It's important.

It took me about two minutes to respond.

To Player Two

Yea, what's up?

A minute passes and my heart is pounding out of my chest.

Player Two

Can you come over?

To Player Two

Yea, probably, it must be really serious if you won't text it.

Player Two

It's about us, Mikey...

I practically flew out of the house. Millions of thoughts running through my mind. Did I actually stand a chance? I never thought that this would happen. Even if he does say that he'd rather just be friends, I'd be satisfied that he even gave me a second thought. I mean, yeah, I would be upset because of how hard I fell for him, but even the thought of having such a chance made me ecstatic. I was probably speeding a bit but to be fair, this was important. I pulled up to the familiar light blue house and felt my heart in my stomach. The closer I was to getting an answer, the more nervous I became. Just breather Mikey, at least he doesn't hate you, or at least I don't think so.

To Player Two

I'm here, I have the spare key, just wanted to let you know

Player Two

That was fast

To Player Two

Might've sped here

Player Two

Jesus Mikey, you are gonna get a ticket

To Player Two

It would be worth it if it were for you

I made my way up the wooden porch. I took one last breath before I opened the front door. The smell of the house hit as soon as I entered, it was a comforting scent for sure. I've been to this house more times than I can count. I made my way up the stairs and knocked on Jeremy's closed door.

"Come in!" Jeremy called.

The door creaked as I slowly opened it.

"Hey Jere, you said we needed to talk?"

He looked down at his hands and nodded.

"Come sit." He said slowly.

He moved over and I sat next to him on the bed.

"So remember how 3 weeks ago I told you I needed some time to think?"

"Yes Jere, I remember."

"So I've thought about this, a lot actually, I haven't been able to think of anything else really. Kinda gonna regret that once report cards come out..." He said with a chuckle.

"Not like you paid attention in class anyway."

He slapped my shoulder.

"Ow, abuse, I'm calling the cops."

"Oh no, you won't." He said as he pushed me onto the bed.

I laid on as we both laughed.

"I wanted to talk about something serious and you make it a joke." He says with a mock annoyed tone.

"Aww, nice to know I did my job."

"Anyway... I wanted to say that..."

Here comes the big moment.

"I really do like you Mikey, you are always there for me when I need you, I feel safe and like I can say anything to you without any true judgment. We have so much in common and not to mention, you are pretty cute I guess...."

"I guess?"

"I don't want to add to your big ego."

"My ego isn't that big, now tell me what you were gonna say!"

"Fine, but you can't make a big deal about it."

"No promises."

"You're like... hot? That feels so awkward to say but it's true."

Michael.exe has stopped working.

"Are you gonna say something or?"

"Oh, right, thanks, dude."

"I spill my heart to you and that's all you say?" Jeremy squeaked.

"Sorry, I just... you feel that way... about me?"

"No Micah, this is all just a prank for my new youtube channel, Rich is actually in the closet filming it," Jeremy said sarcastically.

I didn't say anything for a bit. I needed some time to process everything that happened within the last three weeks. First, Rich and I break up, then Christine and Jeremy break up, then Jeremy is crying over the fact Christine broke up with him, then he kissed me and tells me he likes me but needs time to think and now that he really does like me.

"You know, I was joking about the youtube channel, I was serious about what I said..." Jeremy said as he noticed I didn't say anything.

"Yeah, I kinda got that you big dork."

"Hey, that's not nice. Now, can I ask what you feel about me?"

"Well, are you sure you wanna hear it?"

"Well, I mean, I kinda asked Micah."

"Oh, just making sure, well, I mean, where do I start? Oh um, so in like 7th grade, I came out to you, right? So after that, you just like accepted me, no questions asked. Like you didn't even ask how I knew. I liked you a little bit before I told you, but I didn't really realize it or whatever. So I kept noticing the small things you did, like the way you would have your tiny voice cracks when you would get overly excited about something or how you would do one of your stupid little victory dances whenever Christine would even look in your direction. How you would stick your tongue out whenever you would concentrate on things, how you struggled with math and came to me to ask how to do it knowing damn well I didn't know how to do it either. All of it, just made you, well you and everything about you is perfect. You always say how you wish you could change something about yourself but every time I look at you, I see nothing but perfection. Even your so-called "weird" legs and even your acne, it all makes you who you are Jeremy, and I love who you are."

"I-- wow, you really do have to be extra with everything," Jeremy said with a smile.

"Of course, another one of my qualities."

"But I love it... along with your other many qualities."

"You love my other qualities? So when I call you a furry, you love that?"

"I think you misunderstood what I meant by qualities, I mean like, not bullying and saying untrue things."

"Yeah Yeah, I'm not the one who had taken a "what's my fursona quiz."

"I took it as a joke Micah."

"That sounds like someone who's embarrassed to be a furry would say."

Jeremy looked at me and he, well he was adorable. His face had a slight tinge of pink to it, his glasses fit his face perfectly. His blue eyes glimmered in the light of his bedroom.

"Can I kiss you?" Jeremy blurted out.

His face became red, which was easy to see because of how pale he was.

"Yeah, yeah, you can, that's totally ok, just go for it, I mean like..."

He cut me off when his lips touched mine.

Now this kiss was far better from the other ones from a few weeks ago. This one felt more... not forced? Not that the other ones were, this just felt, better? Since he wasn't high or anything, it just felt more real. I kissed back as best as I could, hoping it was enough. He finally pulled away.

"I love you and your dorky rants but sometimes man, you talk too much." His smile was blinding.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to go on a rant, I just felt like I was gonna mess it up and..."

"You are doing it again Mikey."

"Oh.. right, sorry Jere."

"It's ok, it's adorable really."

"Well I mean, I came all the way over here so we better do something."

"Well, we can watch a movie, if you want of course."

"Which movie?"

"Umm you pick, I'm feeling nice."

I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, nice, sure, what movie do you think I want?"

He looked into my eyes and squinted.

"Cats?" He said jokingly.

"Jere, I thought you said I could pick." I said in response with a giggle.

"Be quiet, we all know my fursona is a dolphin."

"I KNEW YOU WERE A FURRY!"

"Alright fine, I'm totally a furry, now set up the movie, I'll get the snacks."

"Hey, if you bring you bring Cool Ranch Doritos, I'm leaving."

"Oh, well that's all I'm bringing."

Before I could even say anything, he had left. My brain could finally process everything. Jeremy actually liked me? He actually liked me! I don't think I've ever been this happy. Not even when I got my 3DS and a bunch of games for my birthday.

To Lispy Bi

Jeremy just told me he likes me...

Lispy Bi

THAT'S MY BRO! I CAN'T BELIEVE HE ACTUALLY GREW A PAIR! CAN I TELL JAKE?

To Lispy Bi

You were gonna tell Jake anyway, I just... this feels too good to be true.

Lispy Bi

Jake says don't sweat it, Mikey. Jeremy has liked you longer than he'd admit.

To Lispy Bi

Wow, that was fast

Lispy Bi

Wym?

To Lispy Bi

Jake's response.

Lispy Bi

I mean, he's right here so...

To Lispy Bi

Oh what, you guys making out or something?

When I didn't get an immediate answer, I was a little scared because they could be plotting. With Rich, anything is possible. Suddenly I got a notification from Snapchat from Rich. That was strange, he didn't type anything, he just sent something. I slowly opened the app and looked at what Rich had sent me. It was a video. The moment I opened it, I had a feeling I would regret opening it. Jake was the one holding the phone while Rich was laughing in the background. Jake quickly set down the phone and turned to face Rich. And then they kissed. My eyes widened in surprise. Now, this isn't what I was expecting at all.

To Lispy Bi

I- WHAT?

Lispy Bi

Nice to know you aren't mad.

To Lispy Bi

Well obviously not just, WHEN AND HOW?

Lispy Bi

About a week ago? I was waiting to tell you until you had your thing with Jeremy sorted out, I didn't want to make you upset.

To Lispy Bi

You really are a good dude Rich

Lispy Bi

Thanks, Mikey, now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna kiss my boyfriend some more... so... talk to you later.

To Lispy Bi

Have fun, but not too much fun :p

Lispy Bi

Yea Yea, go and have fun with your boy toy

To Lispy Bi

Thanks, I will :)

Lispy Bi

Dork

To Lispy Bi

Shorty :0

Lispy Bi

That's it, I'm leaving

To Lispy Bi

I love you broski

Lispy Bi

I guess I kinda love you too >:}

To Lispy Bi

Bye little buddy

Lispy Bi

Bi Bi

I totally forgot to set up the movie and only remember when Jeremy walked in with some snacks.

"I couldn't bring them all up at once, so I have to make a second trip and... you didn't set up the movie."

"I know, I'm sorry, I was texting Rich and completely forgot, I'm sorry Jere."

"It's ok Micah, what did Rich want?"

"Oh, he was just umm..."

Was I able to tell Jeremy about him and Jake? Was he waiting to tell him?

"Asking for homework answers."

"You're a horrible liar Mikey, you know that?"

"I'm not lying, I hate to lie."

"That's why you are awful at it, now what did Rich really want?"

"I mean, I texted him first..."

"About what?"

"Are you gonna be mad at me?"

"Why would I be mad at you Mikey?"

"I told him about what happened between us."

"Oh, alright, I'm not mad Michael."

"Are you sure?"

"Really Micha, you think I'm gonna be mad at you about that?"

"Well I mean, he also told Jake."

"Well I expected that they are our friends, so I don't mind. Well, I'm gonna get the rest of the snacks, please, actually set up the movie."

"I will, I promise."

He left the room and I actually set up the movie on his tv. He was one of the only people I knew to still have a DVD player, other than me. Rich always teased me about my DVD player saying I should've left it in the '90s and that everyone just used their laptops now, which I did use my laptop but I preferred my DVD player when it came to watching movies. After a few minutes, Jeremy came back. He had brought things like popcorn, ice cream, and Doritos.

"Hey, I thought I told you not to bring Cool Ranch," I said jokingly.

"I brought your nacho cheese ones too, I prefer the Cool Ranch Micah and you know that. I brought your favorite ice cream though if it makes you feel better."

"You got me mint ice cream?"

"Yes Mikey, I brought your toothpaste ice cream."

"Hey, mint chocolate chip is the best flavor."

"Absolutely not, the best flavor is chocolate. It's simple and like everyone likes it."

"I don't like it, I prefer vanilla."

"Mint chocolate chip literally has chocolate in it Micha!"

"Well yeah but not too much, it's the perfect amount Jeremy."

"Sure it is, now, let's watch this movie, I know you really want to watch it."

"I mean, it's iconic Jeremy."

"I still think High School Musical was better."

"The second one was the only redeemable one, the others were boring."

"Alright but Teen Beach Movie's sequel sucked."

"I mean yeah, that's obvious but ½ is less than ⅔ so mine sucked less."

"Whatever, you're lucky I love you enough to put up with your horrible ice cream choices and mediocre movie choices."

"You are acting like you didn't spend two hours learning the Crusin for a Bruisin choreography."

"You liked watching me do it."

"That I did."

Jeremy played the movie and looked at me.

"Lights on or off?"

"On, I wanna watch you dance."

"Who said I was dancing?"

"Jere, out of all the times we watched this movie, you've danced every time. Even when you were basically on your deathbed that one time you got tonsillitis so bad that you could barely move without getting dizzy."

Jeremy just scoffed and laid down on the bed next to me.

"Hey, lift up your head."

"Why?"

"Just do it Jere, jeez."

Jeremy slowly lifted his head and I put my arm under it and put my hand on his shoulder.

"You can lay down now."

"But your arm is gonna lose circulation."

"It's ok Jere."

"I have a better idea."

Before I could ask what it was, Jeremy shifted a bit to the side. He laid his head on my chest and could surely hear how my heart sped up.

"Is this ok?" Jeremy asked anxiously.

"Yeah, don't worry, it's ok."

Because of my tan skin, I was never really affected by blushing the way Jeremy was. But that also meant whenever I was blushing, it was very clear. I could feel the heat in my face. It's not like he's never laid on me before, he definitely has, but not really like this exactly. This felt so... couple like, is that even a thing? As the movie played, my heart calmed down and I was even singing along to the songs. Jere was the only one to know this was my favorite movie, well aside from my moms. It's not like I was embarrassed by it... ok maybe I was but I couldn't help it! Most people my age don't really like these kinds of movies and think they are childish. Whenever anyone asked for my favorite movie, I would say something like Fast & Furious or something. I've watched it like once. It was a good movie but Teen Beach Movie just really did it for me (also the guys who played Butchy and Tanner were hot). The songs were catchy and even though the storyline was cliche, I loved it. 

I had a phase growing up where I wanted to be a "bad boy" and it was the cringiest thing in the whole world. I would buy temporary tattoos from the store and put them all over. I started wearing beanies and even tried to convince my moms to let me pierce my ear, luckily, they told me I should wait till I was older to make a decision on that. I also tried learning how to skateboard and dreamed of getting a motorcycle. So basically when I heard that there was a movie about bikers, I was excited but I kept that on the down-low. I acted like I was too cool for Disney but Jeremy saw right through that. He invited me over to watch the movie the day it came out and I didn't say no. I tried to hide the fact that I loved the movie and I did from mostly everyone. I looked down at Jeremy and he was peacefully watching the movie, and I don't think I've ever been so in love with him. I mean, I basically fell in love with him every day but watching him lay on me after he told me he liked me, I felt like I was on top of the world.

"Michael, are you listening to me?"

"Huh?"

"Of course not..." he said with a laugh.

"Sorry, what's up Jere?"

"I said, let me up, my song is about to come on."

"Oh right, sorry."

I let go of him and he got up. He kept looking back at me with a dorky smile. I watched him as he danced, perfectly may I add. Sure Jeremy is insanely clumsy but he could dance. Though he couldn't do any improv or anything but if he was given moves, he could pull it off pretty well. I was cheering him on the whole time. Usually if he was dancing to something, he would start laughing the moment he started, but he was so focused this time and it was adorable. I secretly got my phone out and recorded it, I needed it for later reference. When the song finally ended, he hit an ending pose and stayed there for a bit, in order to get his breath back. I ended the video before he could see that I was recording. I cheered loudly for him, hopefully, I wouldn't wake up his dad.

"Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week," Jeremy said with a bow.

"My beautiful star."

His face was bright red, and I couldn't tell if he was just tired from dancing or if I had flustered him, I hoped it was the latter.

"Thank you." He said and blew a kiss at me.

I pretended to catch it in my hand and put my hand on my chest. I blew one back to him. Instead of being cute, he decided to be a jerk and threw my imaginary kiss on the floor and stomped on it. He then giggled at my face.

"You are so mean to me."

"I'm only mean because I love you."

"You weren't mean to Christine," I said with a huff.

Jeremy came next to me and put his hand on my cheek.

"I didn't love Christine Micah, I liked her a lot but not the same way I feel about you."

Here lies Michael E. Mell, died because Jeremiah W. Heere was too cute for his gay little heart. Soon, my third favorite song from the movie played, Falling For Ya. It was a cute song and only got beat by Cruisin For A Bruisin and Meant to Be. I remember when the movie first came out, Jeremy had such a crush on Lela but he acted like he didn't. I thought Tanner and Butchy were pretty good looking but I just thought that it was me just being confident with my sexuality, which I thought was straight, boy was I wrong. I knew the girls were pretty, they just weren't doing it for me. Suddenly, Jeremy rolled out of my hold and off of the bed. I went to look over the edge of the bed, Jeremy laid on the floor and was laughing.

"JEREMY? ARE YOU OK?"

"Yeah, I just, fell for you." His dorky smile came back.

I then realized I fell in love with an idiot.

"You realized that you could've gotten hurt by doing that?"

"Yeah, I did, but it was worth the joke."

"You're an idiot...."

"But?"

"But that was cute so I'll allow it, now come back, I want my cuddles."

I reached over the side of the bed and helped Jeremy up. He got back on the bed and laid his head back on my chest.

"Are you actually ok, do you need me to get you an ice pack or something?"

"No, I'm good."

I put my hands in his face and started rubbing his head.

"This isn't bothering you, is it?"

"No, it feels nice, keep doing it."

"Your hair smells like coconut."

"Yeah, I know. It's my new dandruff shampoo."

I removed my hands from his hair and rubbed it on him.

"You just went and ruined the moment," I said with a chuckle.

"Noooo put your hand back." Jeremy wined.

"Fine."

Soon enough, Meant to Be played and I sang along. Jeremy kept looking at me and smiling. I stopped my singing and looked into his eyes.

"What? Is there something on my face?"

"Well other than cuteness, no not really, you are just good at singing."

"Thanks, Jere."

"Hey, Micha?"

"What's up?"

"You love this song right?"

"Yeah, it's like my favorite song in the movie, why?"

"Do you believe in the whole soulmates thing that it's talking about?"

"I don't know Jere, why do you ask?"

"Well, I'm really starting to think you are my soulmate."

"What's all this about?"

"What do you mean?"

"You keep saying all these things to me, I mean, I love it and all, just, why?"

"I just feel bad I guess."

"What? Why?"

"Well, I made you wait so long, I'm making up for the missed time I guess."

"Jere, as sweet as that is, you don't need to make anything up to me, you went through a lot and I don't blame you at all, trust me, I was willing to wait for you, even if it was like 80 years, I'd wait for you."

"Wanna go out to dinner with me?"

"Yeah Jere, I'd like that."

We then continued watching the movie, Jeremy making little comments here and there. I really enjoyed this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Loves! This is the second chapter. I really hope you enjoyed<3 Also Michael loves Teen Beach Movie and I'll take this to the death.


	3. First Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> DATE! DATE! DATE!

The dinner date was the moment everyone was waiting for. It was a Friday night, 7:00 to be more exact. I was basically freaking out to get ready. Should I be dressed up or go casual? My moms had gotten us a reservation at someplace they liked to go to, so I'm guessing it was fancy. I dug through my closet and realized I had a lot of clothes, most being t-shirts. I had a few button-ups so I grabbed all of those and laid them out on my bed.

To Crushing on your best friend squad

HELP ME PICK ONE TO WEAR!

I sent a picture of all of my options to the group. The group consisted of Chloe, Jake and Rich.

Mythic Bitch

I think you should wear the light blue one

Sbarro Bro

Idk man, the white?

Lispy Bi

Spice it up with green

Mythic Bitch

Absolutely don't listen to Rich, how about you ask one of the others to pick between light blue and white

To Crushing in your best friend squad

Thanks, Chloe and Jake!

Lispy Bi

HEY!

Sbarro Bro

It's ok Rich, I think green would look nice

Mythic Bitch

Don't listen to the love birds

So I went to Brooke and Jenna, seeing who would answer first, they both answered around the same time, each picking a different option so I still needed to break the tie. I only had one other person, Christine. I felt bad going to her, considering I was the reason they broke up.

To Theatre Geek

Hey Christine, are you busy?

Theatre Geek

We've gone over this Mikey, you can call me Chrissy or Chris, anyway, I'm not busy, what's up?

To Theatre Geek

Oh right, sorry, um well you see, I need to break a tie, I'm going out tonight with someone and I need help choosing a shirt, should I wear a white one or light blue?

Theatre Geek

Oh well, it depends who you are going with I mean, depends on what they would prefer, who are you going out with?

I didn't know what to say, would she be mad I was going out with Jeremy?

To Theatre Geek

Um... Jeremy, I'm so sorry

Theatre Geek

Mikey:( why on Earth are you sorry?????

To Theatre Geek

Because you went out with Jeremy and I feel like it was completely my fault that you guys didn't work out and I'm so sorry

Theatre Geek

Mikey, sweetheart, listen, it wasn't your fault ok? I don't blame anyone for what had happened! It worked out well for everyone, you and Jeremy are going out and I'm working more on the theatre, really it's a win-win, and plus, I broke it off so that Jeremy could be with you, why would I be mad now? I think that you should wear a light blue shirt, a black blazer, and khakis if you have all of those. You can pick the shoes and make sure to tuck in your shirt! Hopefully, that helped.

I grabbed everything she suggested, even adding a brown belt. I sent Christine a picture of what she suggested, I also sent it to Jenna, Brooke and the group chat.

Pinkberry Girl

OMG! YES! WHOEVER HELPED YOU PICK THAT OUT IS MAGIC! :0 SERIOUSLY YOU LOOK AWESOME!

Carl Azuz

Lookin Good Mell ;)

Mythic Bitch

I told you that the light blue would look better

Sbarro Bro

Alright, Chlo, we get it, you are the style queen...

Mythic Bitch

Never call me Chlo again

Sbarro Bro

CHLO

Lispy Bi

I still think the green woulda been better but you look great Mikey

Theatre Geek

OMG

YOU LOOK AWESOME

I never knew I was a fashion queen

Chloe better watch it haha

I smiled at all of the compliments, thanking each person. I did my hair, meaning I kept it the way it was. I slowly made my way downstairs, in order to get my moms' approval of my outfit.

"Ma? Nanay? I'm ready, I think!" I called from the stairs

"Oh anak, you better get over here and let us see."

I slowly walked into the living room and my moms looked at each other.

"Is it bad? I mean my friends said they liked it but do you not think that it looks good?"

"No baby, you look amazing, really, who knew that we had the most handsome son in the world?" My ma said.

"I totally did, I mean, look at him," Nanay said.

"Thanks, I really tried, do you think Jeremy will like it?"

"Absolutely, and if he doesn't he's insane."

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. My heart was racing and my palms were getting sweaty.

"I can't do this," I said quickly and bolted upstairs.

I was gonna ruin everything. Jeremy was gonna take one look at me and rethink everything. I didn't want to ruin 12 years of friendship. What if I was a horrible boyfriend, I mean I was horrible to Rich. I ignored him completely when I was on a date with him, like who does that? I'm not good enough for Jeremy. He'll find someone better than me and he'll leave me again. There was a knock on my door.

"Anak, can I come in?"

"No, go away, please."

Nanay then walked into my room.

"Oops, I heard, come in my wonderful mother."

Nanay sat on the bed next to me.

"You were so ready for this, what happened?"

"I'm not good enough for him nanay."

"Michael Earnest Mell, don't you dare say that again, you are wonderful and any guy would be lucky to have you. Jeremy is here because he likes you, if he didn't he wouldn't have asked you out, now would he?"

"I mean... no but..."

"No buts except for yours downstairs to meet that lovely young man who's waiting to shower you with affection."

She stood up and offered her hand. I took it and stood up. I then walked downstairs to meet Jeremy. The moment my eyes met Jeremy, I couldn't take my eyes off of him. He had a navy blue knit sweater on. Underneath, was a white collared shirt. He was wearing black dress pants and black shoes. He was holding a bouquet of flowers in his hand. They were some type of beautiful white flowers.

"Are those for me?"

"No, they are for your moms." He said sarcastically.

He handed me the flowers and I felt my face heat up.

"I want my pictures," Nanay said happily.

"I don't think..."

"I don't care what you think, I want my pictures. Now, come on, get on with it."

I pulled Jeremy close to me and wrapped my arm around his waist.

"Now I have to cut out your weed socks Mikey!" Nanay said.

"My weed socks are beautiful nanay, right ma?"

Ma didn't answer.

"Jere, you like my weed socks, right?" I asked hopefully.

"I don't know how I'm supposed to accurately answer that question."

"By saying, Mikey, your weed socks are beautiful just like you."

"Your weed socks are beautiful just like you."

I stammered out an incoherent answer. He had said that, in front of my moms. He wasn't embarrassed or anything.  
"You boys are adorable, now get going so you can make it to the restaurant."

Nanay had handed me my wallet.

"I put money in there, have fun you two."

"Thank you, I love you guys," I said as I slipped on my shoes.

I gave them both a hug. We both turned to leave when my moms stopped us.

"Jeremiah, how dare you try to walk out of here without giving me a hug?"

"Oh, sorry Mrs. Mell," Jeremy said sheepishly.

"How many times do I have to tell you that you can call me Tala?" Nanay said she pulled him into a hug.

He gave ma a hug too and we walked out of the house. I opened the passenger door for him.

"Thanks, Mikey." He said with a smile.

I closed the door for him and made my way to the driver's side. I took a deep breath before getting in. I started the car and made my way out of the driveway.

"Hey Jere, can you put on some music?"

"Yeah, what do you want?"

"Whatever you want, I'm down with whatever."

Based on what I remember, this was from a musical, I believe it was Dear Evan Hansen?

"I love this song, it's kinda sad, I mean..."

Jeremy then goes on a rant telling the story of the song. He seemed really passionate about what he was talking about. My nerves have seemed to calm down, at least a bit. It was just Jeremy and I hanging out, sure it was a date but it really was just Jere and I hanging out together. We've done that millions of times.

"Sorry, I'm kinda rambling."

"It's ok Jere, I actually like this musical. I've liked every single musical you've shown me. And I really do like this musical. It's my favorite one actually."

"Really? I'm glad you like it. It's mine too"

"Dude, I love it. Ben Platt is iconic, and also pretty hot."

Jeremy whacked my arm. I laughed.

"It's not my fault he's hot."

"Yeah, that's true. And he's talented. He's truly amazing."

"Speaking of amazing, you look amazing." I told him.

"Are you sure? I was worried when you didn't say anything that I had chosen the wrong thing. I went to ask my dad but he was clueless and so I decided to get Brooke's opinion and she liked it and... oh, I wasn't supposed to tell you I had help picking out my clothes, it was supposed to seem like I did it myself and..."

"Jeremy, it's ok, I had to ask literally everyone for help because I was so clueless. I had to resort to asking Christine."

"Really? Well, Christine did an amazing job, I mean, you look... wow."

"Nice adjective there."

"Shut up."

One of Jeremy's dorky smiles came through and I couldn't help but look at him.

"Eyes on the road there Mikey."

"I can't help that you are gorgeous."

"Such a charmer."

We got to the restaurant on perfect timing. The restaurant definitely had an older theme to it, which was fitting. The server led us to a nice booth towards the back of the restaurant.

"My name is Andy and I'll be your server tonight, is there anything you want to drink?"

"Ummm, sprite?"

Andy just looked at me and I realized I had probably sounded really stupid because he kept looking at me.

"Yeah, I'll have a coke please," Jeremy said quickly.

Andy looked a little shocked at Jeremy's sudden tone.

"Right, I'll get those right away."

Jeremy started talking about a random musical, one that I've never heard of before, but it was nice how he didn't seem like he was bothering me with his ranting because he wasn't. I really liked it when he ranted about things. I barely noticed when Andy came back.

"Now what would you like to eat?" He said, exclusively looking at me.

"Umm, I'll just have a steak and fries."

"Alright, medium?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"Nice, I like a simple guy like that," Andy said with a smile.

I awkwardly laughed at him.

Andy was about to walk away when he looked and realized Jeremy was there.

"What about you?"

"The chicken Sinatra please."

"Sure," Andy said and left quickly.

"I don't think Andy likes me very much."

"Why do you think that?"

"He literally ignored my existence twice."

"Oh Jere, maybe he's just a little forgetful."

"Yeah, maybe."

We continued to just talk, which was nice.

"Remember that time you dared me to lick the swing set?"

"Michael, I remember me specifically telling you not to and then you said I wasn't your mom and I couldn't tell you what to do and then you licked it."

"Hey, to be fair, you weren't convincing enough."

"Jesus Micha, I shouldn't have to be convincing in order to stop you from doing stupid."

"Yeah yeah, so I was watching this documentary about Adelie penguins who humped dead corpses."

"What is wrong with you?"

"I was on the weird side of youtube Jere, I don't blame myself."

"Why do you like these nature documentaries anyway, you hate science class."

"Well, that's just because Mrs.Wales sucks. I actually like science itself. I hate math though, it's awful."

"The only redeemable part of math is Miss. Mae."

"Ew, are you seriously crushing on her?"

"No, I just think she's pretty."

I rolled my eyes.

"But, you look better."

I rolled my eyes but couldn't help the smile on my face.

"Hey, I know I don't have the best relationship track, but I was serious when I said I wanted to be with you. I shouldn't have brought her up, I'm sorry."

"Jeez Jere, you think I actually was upset at that?"

"I mean... you seemed upset."

"Jere you've known me for 12 years and you don't understand my fake upsetness."

"I don't think that's a word."

"Shut up. I'm not gonna act like I haven't thought a teacher was attractive."

"Wait, who?"

"You are gonna laugh at me."

"I mean yeah but I don't mean it in a hurtful way."

"Fine, I had the hugest crush on Mr.Miller."

"Oh my god, that's why you would always stay after class with him," Jeremy said with a laugh.

"Be quiet! It's not my fault he's cute."

"Should I be jealous?"

"Yes Jeremy, my many years of being head over heels for you means absolutely nothing when some attractive teacher exists."

"Fine, but if I see you staying after in Mr. Miller's class, I'm gonna laugh."

"Whatever man, did you know that male rats only have one chance to mate their entire life so everything not relating to mating completely shuts down to the point where they basically become mindless sex zombies for the rest of their lives."

"I think I'm gonna have to stop you from watching these random documentaries. You are gonna go crazy because of it."

"Hey, I like to learn things."

"And yet you are sporting C's in a good amount of your classes of your classes."

"It's like 2 Jere, and let me rephrase that, I like learning about interesting things."

"So the study of male rats' mating is interesting to you?"

"Hey, don't hate on my knowledge."

"Your knowledge is useless."

"Hey, don't come crying to me when you on a game show and need to know what kind of penguin tries to have sex with dead corpses and baby penguins."

"Baby penguins? I thought it was only the corpses. Also what kind of game show would ask that?"

"No, these penguins are horny like all the time and try to have sex with anything, so basically like you! Also the game show of crude animal knowledge.

"Michael!" There are other people here, you can't just say that!"

"Aw come on Jeremy, you don't want everyone to know that you are my little Adelie penguin?"

"I'm about to walk out right now Micha."

"You wouldn't dare."

"I wouldn't?"

"I..."

"I'm kidding Micah, I'm not leaving you again."

All I could do was smile.

"Here's your food."

Andy placed down the food in front of us. He also placed a folded paper in front of me.

"Enjoy, I told the chefs to make it extra good for you." He looked at me and winked.

"T-thanks." I stammered out.

Andy walked away.

"He's hitting on you dude."

"What, no he isn't, he's just nice."

"He's literally doing what Rich did in the hospital."

I picked up the piece of paper and opened it. There was a set of numbers and a little message.

"What's it say?" Jeremy asked.

I read it to myself before I read it out loud. Alright, so maybe Jeremy was right.

"Aside from being sexy, what do you do for a living? Call me."

Jeremy just stared at me.

"Can I see?" He asked softly.

I nodded and handed him the paper. He read it for a minute and I felt my heart speed up.

"Just so you know, it means nothing to me." I blurted out.

Jeremy then started laughing.

"I knew I wasn't the only one to notice your sexiness."

"I-"

Jeremy handed me back the paper. We then started eating. The food was great. After we finished, we started talking again.

"Wanna have an ice cream sundae?"

"Can we share one?"

"Yeah, if you want."

We then ordered our ice cream sundae. That was also really good. I put my hand on the table and Jeremy immediately grabbed it and squeezed it. My face was heating up.

"I'm really glad you agreed to go out with me, but I feel bad that I was the one to invite you but your moms paid for everything."

"It's ok Jeremy, they've wanted me to go out with you for years now."

"Really? Did everyone know about you liking me before I did?"

"I mean, it was kinda obvious Jerebear."

"Oh god, please don't tell me that's what you are gonna call me now."

"I've been waiting to call you that for years, don't take it away from me Jere."

"Fine, I won't."

Andy came back with our sundaes and I saw him glance at our hands on the table.

"Enjoy." He said quietly and left.

"I feel bad now," I said to Jeremy.

"I don't feel bad, he's trying to hit on my man."

"I'm your man now?" I asked with a laugh.

Jeremy tried to spit out a coherent sentence but he didn't, so I stopped him.

"It's ok Jere, I know I'm irresistible."

"Whatever dude."

We soon left the restaurant.

"Wanna go to the game store a few blocks from here?"

"Dude, you did not just ask me that."

"That's fair, come on, let's go."

We got into my car and drove to the store. We stayed silent but it was ok. After a few years, you are able to sit with someone in silence and still enjoy it. By the way, Jeremy was acting, he seemed to be enjoying himself. I mean, I sure hoped he did because I was having a good time.

I couldn't believe I was on a date with Jeremiah Heere. The dude who I've liked for literal years finally asked me on a date.

"Next time, I'm gonna plan the date, I mean, it won't amount to this but I can try."

"There is gonna be a next time?"

"Well, I hoped so, unless you don't want there to be."

"No, I definitely do."

We got to the game store, luckily no one else was there except for the cashier. Jeremy and I browsed the aisles and made some random jokes.

"Is it bad that this doesn't feel like a date now?" Jeremy asked randomly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm not as nervous like I was before, now, it just feels natural."

"Yeah, it does, what happened to the whole opposites attract thing?"

"I don't know, probably just some movie trope that makes people feel better about themselves.

"That's fair, hey look!" I said pointing at something excitedly.

"Michael it's not a nice thing to point." Jeremy reminded me.

I ignored him and went over to the Pacman plushies.

"It's a red ghost, Jere! Look, it fits my aesthetic!"

"You have an aesthetic?"

"Yes Jere, red and retro. When I get money for my birthday, I'm gonna buy one!"

"Your birthday is like 3 weeks from now."

"I said what I said Jere."

"Alrighty Mikey."

"You are coming with me to buy it."

"Well yeah, I assumed so."

We soon left the store, since it was about to close. I then drove Jeremy to his house.

"I had a great time, thanks Micha."

"Anytime Jere. I have a question."

"Yeah? Say what's on your mind."

"Well, what does this mean for us?"

Jeremy looked at me and didn't answer for a solid minute.

"Well, I don't wanna rush into anything, I don't think we need a title or anything, I just wanna keep going out with you."

"Oh alright."

"Are you ok with that?"

"I mean yeah, it's just that a title would've, I don't know, made it feel like we are exclusive, you know?"

"Well, I'm not going anywhere, I just don't wanna rush and put a title on us."

"No, I get that, it's just, I'm scared."

"What are you scared of?"

"That you are gonna realize I'm not good for you Jere."

"I know I messed up a lot Michael, but I wouldn't just leave you... well I mean, I wasn't there before but I'm here now."

I grabbed Jeremy's hand and squeezed it, just like he had done in the restaurant.

"Go ahead."

"Hmm?"

"Take a picture, I know you want to."

"But you said..."

"I didn't say that we couldn't have a title, I'm just saying that we didn't need one, but if you want then it's totally ok, just say the words."

"Jeremy, will you be my boyfriend?"

"Of course. Now, let's brag to the others."

I grabbed my phone and put on the flash then took a picture.

"Are you sure that I didn't rush anything?"

"No Micha, it's ok, anyway, I think I should go inside before my dad gets worried."

"Yeah, I don't want to get on your dad's bad side."

"I don't think you can get on anyone's bad side."

"I know, I'm amazing." I said as a pretended to dust off my shoulders.

"You are a dork."

"Am I your dork?"

"Sure, if that will help you sleep at night."

"Maybe it will."

"Jesus you are so weird."

"Like you aren't."

"Goodnight Micha."

"Goodnight Jere, is it too early to say I love you?"

"I mean, we've been saying it before so what's the difference?"

"I mean, we are dating now so...."

"We've also known each other for 12 years... so no, it's not to early, I love you Micha, text me when you get home"

"I will, I love you Jere."

He gave me a quick peck on the lips and opened the door. After a quick wave, he got out of my car and made his way up the porch. Once he got inside, I drove away. It still worried me that I had rushed everything with Jeremy. Even though he told me it was fine, I still was scared I made him uncomfortable. I drove home listening to whatever was on the radio. When I got home, I noticed my mom's car wasn't in the driveway. When I went into the kitchen, I saw a note on the counter.

You think you would be the only one going on a date tonight? We'll be back later, love you baby <3

I slowly made my way upstairs and into my room.

To Player Two

I'm home now

Player Two

Good<3 I'll talk to you tomorrow

To Player Two

Are you sure you aren't upset at me?

It took a few minutes for him to reply which made me nervous.

Player Two

Dude, no way. I understand where you were coming from. Stop worrying, now that I thought about it more, I'm glad u officially asked, we both know I wouldn't have until like 30 years later bc I would be too scared :p But really, I'm glad I get to call you my boyfriend, alright?

His message made me smile.

To Player Two

Ok, fine, I'll stop worrying

Player Two

You better, now get some sleep you weeb

To Player Two

You wanna call me a weeb? I think your internet history will show who's really the weeb...

Player Two

MIKEY!

To Player Two

I love you dork :p

Player Two

I guess I love you too nerd

I know Jeremy said he was completely ok with it but I'm paranoid ok? I texted each one of my friends to see who would answer me first. Surprisingly, it was Jenna.

Carl Azuz

What's up Mell?

To Carl Azuz

Can I rant to you?

Carl Azuz

Is that even a question? Call or text?

To Carl Azuz

Can I call you?

Carl Azuz

I wouldn't have asked if you couldn't call me Michael

To Carl Azuz

Right

I called Jenna and she answered almost immediately.

"Hey bitch, what's up?"

"Hey Miss, just wallowing in my paranoia, what about you?"

"I'm fine and dandy, now what's got you all paranoid?"

"I feel like Jeremy is mad at me."

"And why would he be?"

"Well you see, tonight we went on our date, and he said that we didn't need a title but I was kinda pushing it and he agreed to have a title but now I feel like I made him uncomfortable."

"Why were you pushing a title?"

"I was worried, it's kinda like that dating thing you went over with me last week. Dating isn't as exclusive as boyfriend level. I thought that if we were just dating then, I don't know, it would be easier for him to just leave."

"Michael baby, listen, I'm sorry. I didn't tell you that to scare you or nothing, I did it just so you were aware. Now I don't know everything that went down during everything that happened but Jeremy has changed right? He hasn't been ignoring you, right."

"Well, no..."

"Exactly, I know what he did hurt you but he's trying ok? He's not gonna leave you again. Even if the SQUIP was off that one time, he was still manipulated enough to react without it in a way that he thought would satisfy it. It's not your fault this happened. And you really think Jeremy's mad at you over wanting a title? Did he say anything to show he was upset?"

"Well, not exactly.."

"What did he say Michael?"

"Well, he said that he was glad to call me his boyfriend."

Jenna goes quiet for a minute before responding. She sighs.

"Michael, what am I gonna do with you? If he was really upset, would he say that?"

" Maybe to make me feel better."

"He's not mad Mikey, he wants you to be his boyfriend. Alright? Jeez, both of you are dorks, and I can't even say you are the biggest dork of the two, I mean you've seen him."

"But he's my dork."

"That he is, I'm glad yall two are together. You guys are cute."

"Thanks Jenna, not just for that, for everything."

"Of course, you're my best friend."

"I would say that you are my best friend too but..."

"Yes Mell, I get it, Jeremy is your priority."

"Hey! If it makes you feel better, you are my girl best friend."

"Aw, I feel flattered. Christine and Chloe are gonna jump me for that."

"Oh god, please don't tell them, otherwise you would need to protect your knees."

"Why my knees?"

"That's as far as Christine can reach." I said with a chuckle.

"Keep that up Mell and she's gonna be coming for your knees."

We both laughed.

"I love Christine, she's great."

"How can you not love Christine?"

"That's a fair point."

"Did you hear about Rich and Jake?" Jenna asked out of nowhere.

"Oh yeah, I did, did everyone know before I did?"

"Well Jeremy didn't, but yeah, Jake told me you knew."

"So why did you ask?"

"I don't know, I just felt like it."

"You are something else Jenna."

"Ok, but we been knew that. But I was just gonna ask, did you expect that?"

"Rich and Jake?"

"Yeah, them."

"I mean, I knew Rich liked Jake."

"Wait? There was news I didn't know? Wow, where did my magic go? When did you find that out?"

"Um, the night we broke up."

"Oh right, I forgot you two dated"

"Yeah, it definitely wasn't gonna work out because... ya know."  
"Trust me, I know."

"Yeah, but you like Rich and Jake together, right?"

Jenna laughed.

"Dude, of course, I'm a sucker for best friends getting together. That opposites attract thing is total bullshit."

I giggled.

"Do you have your eye on anyone?"

"Yeah right, you think I got time for relationships?"

"That's fair, but if someone does happen to catch your eye, I better be the first to know, I'll be the best wingman ever."

"Of course. I'm gonna go to sleep, goodnight Mell."

"Goodnight Carl Azuz."

"Call me that one more time and I'm blocking your ass."

"My ass specifically? Aw but then you can't look at the best part about me."

"I don't wanna look at your ass, that's Jeremy's job."

We both started dying of laughter.

"Speaking of Jeremy, can you please not tell him, you know, about all of this?"

"Yes Mell, I'm more than a gossiper."

"I didn't mean..."

"I'm kidding, goodnight you freak."

"Love you Carl Azuz."

"I don't love you now that you said that."

"Noooo, I'm sowwy."

"You are a child."

"Infant."

"Right, love you too I guess."

"Bye love."

"Bye hon."

And like that, Jenna hung up. It was nice to have Jenna to go to. I was pretty close to everyone in the group, but Jenna and I really had a connection. I don't know what it is about her but she was able to make you spill your darkest secrets within moments of knowing her. She always made me feel better. She was someone who I could go to when I couldn't go to Jeremy, which to be fair, wasn't very often. Jeremy was surprised when I started talking to Jenna. He told me that it was an unexpected pair and to be fair, it was. Most of my worry about Jeremy went away when I talked to Jenna, which was good. Everything sorta felt like a dream. I never thought that I'd even tell Jeremy that I liked him let alone us officially being together. It all felt so surreal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is all done so basically the chapters are all gonna be posted today ahah. Hope you enjoy<3 Leave a comment just saying whatever you want! Also Jenna and Michael are like best friends and I don't take criticism (I'm kidding but they are best friends, only second to Jeremy and Michael's best friendship)


	4. Mikey's Birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Michael's 17th birthday and he's jealous.

My 17th birthday was today, and it felt like just a normal day. My moms wanted me to invite all of my friends over for a mini party. I was fine with that, but I kinda just wished I could've spent the day alone with Jeremy and my moms. I loved my friends dearly but sometimes, I felt like the only reason they hung around me was because of Jeremy.Speaking of Jeremy, the moment it hit midnight, I got spammed by him. It made me smile a lot. He also put a whole bunch of pictures of me all over his snapchat, even some of my baby photos. I would definitely have to talk to my moms about that one. It was really sweet. I also got some texts by Jake, Rich and Jenna. I told all of them to go to bed after I thanked them. Rich also posted some random embarrassing pictures, which he stole from Jeremy. I felt jealous for everyone who didn't have their birthday on a school day. Unfortunately, it was Friday. Which to be fair, was a million times better than having a birthday on a Monday. My moms busted into my room at midnight, which they did every year. They sang happy birthday the loudest they could and probably woke up anyone in a 12 mile radius. When I woke up, at 7am for school, I got texts from Brooke, Chloe and Christine. All of my texts consisted of.

Player Two<3

MICHA

DUDE  
MY BRO

Wait no, that's messed up

ANYWAY THIS IS GONNA BE LONG AND SAPPY

But oh well

BTW I wrote this in advance bc I wanted to make sure that it sounded good and it wasn't mindless rambling

But here we go.

Dear Micha,

So we've been best friends for 12 years, which is the majority of my life. I can't remember like anything in my life before I met you. The day I met you was the day that my life changed in the best way possible. You were my first friend and my only friend for many years. Even tho now we have a lot of friends, you are still the most important to me. Ok this is gonna be dorky but I'm gonna say it :p If I had a penny for everytime I thought about you, I would have only one penny, bc you never leave my mind <3 Ok so I wasn't expecting for that to sound so cliche but it did. I know we've only been dating for like a few weeks but it feels like so much longer. I think that's just some soulmate power tbh. I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting to like you in the way I do and I was skeptical of a relationship with you, not bc of anything like wrong with you, bc u are my definition of perfect and everything but bc we were/are best friends and I just didn't wanna ruin anything. But I've never been more happy to go against my instincts. Even though the SQUIP was awful and everything, that is something I did learn from it. I know we are in highschool and usually highschool relationships don't work out but I really do think you are my soulmate. No one else can handle your dorky ass so I guess I gotta do it ;) But really, you are the best best friend in the world and also the bestest boyfriend<3 I love you and happy birthday:)))

WOW that was dorky but I guess my love is on display now

To Player Two<3

WOW, when you said it was gonna be sappy, I was expecting a bit of tree sap, but I didn't expect a whole forest of tree sap;)

Player Two<3

WoW oK

To Player Two<3

But really, thank you babe<3 I love you more than words can express, can't wait to hang out later today!!!

Player Two<3

I worship you, I'd trade my life for yours (BTW me too)

To Player Two<3

???

Player Two<3

That's it, we are done, you didn't understand my musical reference

To Player Two<3

NOOO I'M SOWWY:(((( TAKE ME BACKKKK I PROMISE I"LL CHANGE BBYYYY

Player Two<3

I was gonna accept it but now that you wrote baby like that....

To Player Two<3

I thought I was your SOULMATE ;)

Player Two<3

Shut up I was tired

To Player Two<3

I thought you said you wrote it in advance

Player Two<3

Ummm... how about you shut up!!!!

To Player Two<3

So where did you get those photos of me?

Player Two<3

You mean those cute baby pics;) your moms are great suppliers.

To Player Two<3

Of course, go to sleep you nugget

Player Two<3

Fineeee, goodnight, love you and happpy birthday!!!

*Happy

To Player Two<3

Goodnight love you too<3

Lispy Bi

Happy Birthday exieeee/bro. Dating you wasn't awful so props to you!!

To Lispy Bi

Did you just call me your exie?

Lispy Bi

Yes, your point?

To Lispy Bi

Nvm, anyway thanks dude, what are you doing up?

Lispy Bi

Well when your boyfriend calls me multiple times reminding me to say happy birthday to you, you kinda gotta be up. Not like I didn't remember anyway but still.

To Lispy Bi

Jake called you to remind you of my birthday?

Lispy Bi

No you dumbass, YOUR boyfriend did.

I smiled. Jeremy was literally the sweetest.

Lispy Bi

Anyway, I'm going to bed, and if your boyfriend calls me again this early in the morning, you will no longer have a boyfriend.

To Lispy Bi

I love you and all but if you dare touch my boyfriend, I'll lock you in my basement and leave you to rot :)

Lispy Bi

Jeez, I'm sending this to Jeremy

To Lispy Bi

DONT

Lispy Bi

Too late;)

Player Two<3

Aww, my protective muffin

To Player Two<3

GO TO BED!!

To Lispy Bi

Friendship over, also where did you get those pics of me?

Lispy Bi

Your boyfriend

To Player Two<3

REALLY? YOU GAVE RICH EMBARRASSING PICTURES OF ME

Player Two<3

I thought I was supposed to be going to bed, also he was pretty persuasive.

To Player Two<3

WHat did he say?

Player Two<3

Yo Jere, got any weird pics of mikey

To Player Two<3

Jiviuzisifiydie

Persuasive my ass

Player Two<3

I like your ass ;)

To Player Two<3

Ahhfvhjsskhbjhhdvh STOP! BED! NOW!

To Lispy Bi

I'm gonna go respond to your boyfriend now, bedtime for the children, aka you

Lispy Bi

RUDE!

Sbarro Bro

Happy birthday brodie, youre a dope dude

To Sbarro Bro

Thanks dude, what are you doing up?

Sbarro Bro

Wasn't tired

To Sbarro Bro

Go? To? Bed?

Sbarro Bro

I'll think about it

To Sbarro Bro

Maybe, xo baby

Sbarro Bro

What?

To Sbarro Bro

It's a musical thing, Jeremy & Christine would be proud

Sbarro Bro

Oh, I was about to say man... I mean you good looking and all but my eyes are on one boy and he goes by Richard L. Goranski

To Sbarro Bro

RICH HAS A MIDDLE NAME???

Sbarro Bro

Doesn't like everyone?

To Sbarro Bro

I don't think so, anyway WHAT IS IT?

Sbarro Bro

Rich will slaughter me

To Sbarro Bro

Say it was a birthday gift

Sbarro Bro

Cant argue with that, its Leon

To Sbarro Bro

HIS NAME IS RICHARD LEON GORANSKI?

Sbarro Bro

Yea

To Sbarro Bro

OMG!! You made my whole day, thanks

Sbarro Bro

Of course

Carl Azuz

Yo bitch, happy birthday, you freak of nature. I love you or whatever. Thanks for being a good friend

To Carl Azuz

Thank you Carl Azuz, I love you too

Carl Azuz

You are now blocked. Who even is this Carl Azuz???

To Carl Azuz

Wait, you didn't know?

And never questioned it before?

Carl Azuz

No, now tell me

To Carl Azuz

He's the guy on CNN10 Jenna

Carl Azuz

Oh you mean that guy with the shitty puns?

To Carl Azuz

Yea, but that description also matches Jeremy

Carl Azuz

Of course you included Jeremy in this, gross

I'm kidding, its cute

To Carl Azuz

Bold of u to assume that I didnt know that already

Why are you not sleeping

Carl Azuz

TBH, I had an alarm set for you so it's your fault

To Carl Azuz

Friend of the year award? Yes

Carl Azuz

We been knew

To Carl Azuz

I cherish you

Carl Azuz

I cherish you too

Mythic Bitch

Happy b-day

To Mythic Bitch

Thanks Chloe

Pinkberry Girl

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKEYYYY!! I'm taking you out to Pinkberry tomorrow no arguments<3

To Pinkberry Girl

Aw Brooke, you don't have to but thank you

Pinkberry Girl

What do u not get about no arguments?

To Pinkberry Girl

Fine, thanks Brooke

Pinkberry Girl

:)

Theatre Geek

Happy Birthday Mikey!! I'm so happy that we are friends bc you are so nice and lovely<3 I have a small surprise for you, you'll have to wait till later for your gift;)

To Theatre Geek

OMG stop!!! You didn't have to do all that

Theatre Geek

Oh but I did, you're my friend Mikey, whether you believe it or not, which you better!!

To Theatre Geek

You are a godsend

Theatre Geek

<3

I started getting ready for school. I threw a random shirt from my closet and pulled on my red hoodie. I went downstairs to have some breakfast before brushing my teeth and picking up Jeremy.

"My baby is 17, you are growing so old, soon you are gonna graduate, go to college, move out, get married, have some children and I'll be a grandma, I'm not ready to be a grandmother." Ma said and she pulled in into a hug.

"Whoa ma, you are moving a little too fast for me. I'm not leaving, I'm still here. And you aren't gonna be a grandmother, not yet at least."

"I don't know what your ma is talking about, I can't wait for you to get married and have kids, you and Jeremy are gonna have the cutest wedding."

My face exploded red.

"Nanay, Jeremy and I have been dating for 3 weeks!"

"I know, but I can just tell you two are gonna last."

I smiled.

"I sure hope so, this is gonna sound dramatic but..."

"Literally anything that comes out of your mouth is dramatic but ok."

Ma received a whack in the arm for that one by nanay.

"Let the boy talk."

"Fine, what were you gonna say?"

"I was gonna say that Jeremy is like my everything."

Cue the awws from my moms.

"Remember when we were like this when we first started dating?"

Ma looked at nanay.

"Be quiet! I have a rep to uphold."

I laughed.

"Wait, really? I just thought that it was just us. I feel like everyone is judging us for being too lovey too soon."

"Don't let people bother you anak, your relationship is your relationship, not theirs, if you are both comfortable with it then who cares? You two are just both naturally emotional people, but that's not bad, it's cute."

My moms were literally amazing. I'm so glad my moms were both in my life. Without them, I would be a completely different person.

"Now, it's time for your birthday breakfast."

I sat down at the table. They always insisted on this tradition as well. I usually made my own breakfast, which was completely fine with me. Every year on my birthday, they made me strawberry pancakes (waffles were literally the worst and no one can tell me otherwise). They also got me my favorite drink (that's not soda) which was Lemon Berry Squeeze Hawaiian punch. They placed the juice and the plate of pancakes in front of me.

"Thank you ma and nanay, I love you both." I said with a smile.

"Love you too, now eat up, don't want to keep your prince waiting."

Both of my moms laughed. I just started eating my breakfast, which was delicious. I quickly ate my breakfast, brushed my teeth and headed out the door, after quickly saying bye to my moms.

To Player Two<3

I'm on my way

Since Jeremy didn't answer, I knew he was still getting ready. Considering the fact that he basically wears the same thing everyday, it was a mystery on how it took him so long to get ready. Though, it was worth it to see him looking adorable so I was ok with it. I stopped at his house, Bob Marely blaring from the speakers.

Player Two<3

Do you have to wake up my entire neighborhood every morning?

To Player Two<3

Yes, now hurry uppppp

Player Two<3

Hold on you dork, I'm still picking out my clothes.

To Player Two<3

Jeez Jere, who are you trying to impress?

Player Two<3

You;) I have to look nice on your birthday, it's a rule of dating

To Player Two<3

You always impress me Jere and I dont think thats actually a rule

Player Two<3

Whatever, just hold on

I waited a good 5 minutes for him. Luckily, I came to pick him up early or we would be late like everyday. He walked out of the house and wow, did he impress. He was sporting a plain white shirt and dark wash jeans. The difference in his outfit was instead of his navy blue cardigan, a light gray cardigan sat on his shoulders. He opened the passenger door and slid in the car. He closed the door and then looked at me. I looked back at him and smiled. He gave me a quick peck on the lips and smiled back.

"Happy birthday babe."

"Thank you Jere."

He started digging through his book bag as I started driving. He pulled out something and set it on his lap.

"Whatca got there?"

"Part of your gift."

"Jare, you know you didn't have to get me anything, spending my birthday with you is enough."

"I wasn't just gonna not get my boyfriend something for his birthday."

I shook my head but couldn't help the smile on my face. Jeremy was so kind hearted. Soon enough, we pulled into the school parking lot. I parked the car in my normal spot.

"Open it." Jeremy said and practically shoved the gift onto my lap. It was a small, rectangular box. It was wrapped haphazardly.

"Sorry, I don't really know how to wrap."

"I noticed." I said with a chuckle.

"I wanted to give it to you when it was just us. Once you open it, I'll explain why."

I slowly took off the wrapping paper and took the top off the small tin box. Inside was a familiar looking surfboard charm and a silver flower necklace.

"Is this what I think it is?"

"Yeah, it is, I just thought you would want me to give it to you when we were alone because you always seemed kinda embarrassed by the fact you love Teen Beach Movie and..."

"HOLY SHIT JERE THIS IS AMAZING! I LOVE YOU."

I reached across the seat and pulled Jeremy into a hug. I started pressing kisses all over his face. He laughed as I continued to kiss him. The charm was a small keychain that was designed after the magical surfboard from the movie. The flower necklace was like the one that Lela gave Mack that was magic.

"I love you too, I'm glad you like it." He smiled.

I stopped kissing his face and looked at him.

"Like it? I LOVE IT, can you help me put the necklace on?"

"But I thought you didn't want anyone knowing about your obsession."

"It's not an obsession, it's a strong love and that was before, and I can't just let such an amazing gift go to waste."

I handed Jeremy the necklace and turned my back to him. He reached around my neck and put on the necklace. As he put that on, I connected the keychain to my zipper on the main pocket of my book bag.

"There." He said.

I turned back to face him.

"How's it look?" I asked.

"Perfect."

"Good, now. Let's go meet our friends."

We both got out of the car. We walked together until we got to our normal spot to meet our friends. It was on the east staircase, which was close to our lockers.

"Hey guys!" Rich called out.

We both waved in their direction.

"Oh Mikey! Here, I made this specially for you." Crhristine said as she handed me a small brown bag. Inside, was a plastic container. Inside of that, was a vanilla cupcake with black frosting. On top, laid a pac man made out of what I was guessing fondant.

"Whoa, you made this?"

Christine nodded.

"Oh my god, this is so amazing! Thank you!"

"Of course Mikey."

I took out my phone and took a quick picture. I needed to have this beautiful cupcake on display.

I took a bite out of it and it was the best cupcake I've ever tasted.

"Christine, this is the best cupcake known to man! I didn't know you could bake!"

She giggled.

"Yeah, I bake, my mom owns a bakery, you know What's Inside bakery? That's my mom's."

"No way!"

"Totally, my mom taught me a few things."

"Can I have some?" Jeremy asked and pouted his lips.

I rolled my eyes but handed the cupcake over to him. His smile made it worth it. He took a bite of the cupcake and had a similar reaction to mine.

"Hold on, Mikey, can I see your necklace?" Christine asked.

I nodded and she lightly grabbed the flower charm, lifting it off my chest. Her eyes widened in excitement.

"Is this what I think it is?"

"What is it?" Jake asked.

"A TEEN BEACH MOVIE NECKLACE! I LOVE THAT MOVIE, WHERE DID YOU GET IT?" Christine asked enthusiastically.

I smiled.

"I love it too! It's my favorite movie! Jere got it for me."

The rest of the group just looked at me. Were they judging me?

"I always assumed you were more of a high school musical guy." Chloe said as she scrunched her nose.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I don't know, you seem like one of those guys."

"Nope, that's Jere."

"He's right." Jere butt in.

"So, you guys are still coming tonight right?"

"Yeah dude, of course, what time was it again?" Rich asked.

"6, it's gonna be a great time."

"For sure, I can guarantee, his moms are the best party hosts." Jeremy said happily.

"I can't believe you prefer Teen Beach Movie over High School Musical." Brook said suddenly.

"Well, only the second one was good to be honest." Jenna said, still scrolling through her phone.

"Exactly!"

"I think we are all forgetting the real superior movie." Jake interrupted.

"Pirates of the Caribbean?" Chloe asked.

"No, Lemonade Mouth."

"You like Lemonade Mouth?" All of us asked at the same time.

"Who doesn't?"

"Me, it was boring."

Everyone stared at Rich.

"You have 5 seconds to run before I slaughter you."

Rich sprinted away and 5 seconds later, Jake ran after him.

"Who knew Jake was so passionate about Lemonade Mouth?"

We laughed.

"Shouldn't someone make sure Jake doesn't actually kill Rich?"

"I'll go." I said with a sigh.

I walked in the direction they ran off in. Soon enough, I found Rich and Jake, and they were making out. Gross. I cleared my throat and they both stopped and looked at me.

"Do you mind Michael? I'm trying to kiss my boyfriend."

"Well, I see how it is, I was trying to stop you from being murdered but I guess you would rather play tonsil hockey then be saved."

Jake smiled.

"He's fine, I won't kill him."

"At this point, if you did, I'd help you."

Jake laughed and Rich looked offended.

"No more kisses." Rich stated.

"Really now? What if I do this?"

Jake leaned down and started to kiss his neck and that's where I decided to leave. I walked back to the steps and saw Brooke and Jeremy talking. Brooke had her hand around Jeremy and he was looking at her. He seemed so happy when she laid her arm on him. I felt something start to burn from within. I tried to push it away, Brooke and Jeremy were just friends. Jeremy and I were dating and he loved me, right? Brooke leaned over and kissed Jeremy on the cheek before walking away with Chloe. The bell rang to say it was the end of grazing period and time for homeroom. My whole heart plummeted. I mean, Jeremy didn't do anything and I knew Brooke didn't mean any harm by it but it still really hurt. Instead of going to my locker and getting my stuff for first period, I quickly walked into the bathroom. I walked over to the sinks and looked into the mirror above the sinks. Michael, come on, you are overreacting. Jeremy doesn't like Brooke and Brooke doesn't like Jeremy, or does she? Her and Jeremy had been close ever since he apologized to her. What if he was just using me to get back with her? He wouldn't do that, would he? Maybe he would. 

I felt tears welling in my eyes. Michael, don't cry. Come on, you are supposed to enjoy today, not spend it crying. It hurt really badly. I knew I would have to leave the bathroom since the admins would come in in order to check for people skipping so I would go to my normal skipping place, the dressing rooms backstage in the auditorium. I quickly walked out of the bathroom and made my way to the auditorium. I went on the stage and ducked into the wings. I then climbed down the stairs to the dressing rooms. I knew they weren't in use unless a show was going on and I've never gotten caught going there. I opened the door and sat on the couch. I knew I was alone, so I let my tears spill. I put my headphones on and put on some music in order to try to make me feel better. I put my feet on the couch and turned to face away from the door. If anyone were to come in here, I didn't want to look them in the face. Everything hurt. Did Jeremy really not love me? I might be being a little over dramatic but I couldn't help it. I mean, the only other relationship I had was Rich and he never let anyone kiss him on the cheek. Maybe Jeremy didn't expect it. Did I even have a real reason to be jealous? Brooke was a nice girl and she wouldn't try to hurt me, would she? No, she wouldn't hurt anyone. I was starting the think I was dumb for being upset. I didn't realize how much time had passed until I felt my phone vibrate multiple times.

Player Two<3

Hey Mikey?

Where did you go?

I asked Rich and Jake but they said you went back to us

Stephanie said you weren't in homeroom.

Michael please answer me, I'm worried

Mikey?

Micah?

Are you ok?

Please answer me

Micah Please

Just give me a sign to know u are ok

Carl Azuz

Yo Mell, where did you go?

Jeremy is freaking the fuck out

Literally about to pass out

Michael

Mell

Answer

Me

Lispy Bi

Dude I thought you went back to the group, why is Jenna telling me that Jeremy is on the verge of a panic attack?

Shit, I didn't mean to make Jeremy upset. My jealousy was stupid. I hurt Jeremy. I was an awful boyfriend. I was an awful best friend.

To Carl Azuz

Jenna, please don't tell Jeremy I'm texting you

Carl Azuz

WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?

We've been worried sick

And why can't I tell Jeremy?

To Carl Azuz

Look, I'm sorry, I got upset and I had to get away

Jeremy might be the reason

Carl Azuz

What? You need to explain.

To Carl Azuz

I hate to ask you this

But can you come to the auditorium?

Carl Azuz

I'm on my way

I felt awful. I made Jenna come all the way over here, risking her getting in trouble, just for me. Was I really that selfish?

Carl Azuz

Where are you?

To Carl Azuz

Dressing room

A minute later, Jenna walks in.

"Why are you in here? Why are you upset? Why can't I tell Jeremy?"

"Am I an awful boyfriend?"

Jenna furrowed her eyebrows.

"I didn't think so, why? Did Jeremy say you were? I will literally slit his throat."

"Jesus Jenna, no, it's just, I got jealous."

"Jealous of who?"

"Jeremy and Brooke."

Jenna's mouth slightly dropped open.

"Why?"

"She had her arm around him and she kissed his cheek and I know it's stupid to be upset but..."

"It is stupid, you really think Jeremy is gonna leave you for Brooke?"

"Well, I mean they dated before so..."

I was now crying. Great. Jenna put her hand on my shoulder.

"Michael baby, Jeremy never really liked Brooke, he only dated her because of the SQUIP, he really does like you, he loves you in fact. Want me to prove it to you?"

I shrugged. She started texting on her phone and I kept on crying. She grabbed some tissues out of the purse she carried on her. She handed them to me and wiped my eyes.

"Look at this."

Jenna shoved her phone in my face.

To The Dork

Jeremy, quick question, do you like Brooke?

The Dork

She's one of my friends. So of course

To The Dork

I mean like like her Jere

The Dork

No, I have a whole boyfriend??? Why would I?

Speaking of which, I really hope he's ok

Idk what I would do if something were to happen to him

To The Dork

Seems like you care about him

The Dork

Are you kidding?

He's everything to me

I love him more than anyone else

To The Dork

I think the two of you need to talk?

The Dork

YOUVE TALKED TO MICHAEL?

IS HE OK?

PLEASE TELL ME HE IS

ALSO TELL HIM TO PLEASE TEXT ME

HE HAS HIS READ RECEIPTS OFF SO IDK IF HE READ MY MESSAGES

To The Dork

Alright, jeez, chill out

Wait shit I didn't mean to say that

Just calm down

The Dork

Jenna listen

This is literally my baby we are talking about

Also Mr. Drepes is really pissed so you better hurry

"Michael, you see? He loves and cares for you. Now stop being mopey on your birthday."

"Thanks Jenna, I'm sorry I got Mr. Drepes mad at you."

She shrugged.

"Anything for you, now text Jeremy. And you better be in your next period class."

I nodded.

"Thanks, love you Jenna."

"Love you too." She got up and left.

To Player Two<3

Jere, I'm sorry I worried you, i'm fine

Player Two<3

MICHAEL

EARNEST  
MELL

I WAS WORRIED SICK

OMG

To Player Two<3

I'm sorry

Player Two<3

It's ok, at least I know you're ok.

Anyway, Jenna said we needed to talk? Would you rather talk in person or?

To Player Two<3

Can we do this over text, I just don't wanna cry in front of you right now

Player Two<3

Cry? Micah, what's going on? Did I do something?

To Player Two<3

Not exactly, can I plz explain everything before you say anything?

Player Two<3

Yes Micah, now tell me what's wrong

To Player Two<3

Well, it's gonna sound stupid but plz just hear me out

So basically, I know you aren't an asshole. You are super kind and everything

But I have a strong feeling you are gonna leave me

And seeing Brooke put her arm around you and kiss you on the cheek, kinda made that fear more present. I know you told me you weren't gonna leave me but I can't help but worry.

Ok now you can talk

Jeremy took a while to respond, which I didn't know if that was good or bad.

Player Two<3

Micah, whenever you feel like that, we need to talk it through, you can't just run and hide away. I will never get mad at you for how you feel. And when I said I love you, I meant it. And Micah, poor innocent Micah

Brooke is already in a relationship and so am I, so we aren't gonna get together anytime soon. And your jealousy is valid. I completely understand, like if I saw Rich kiss you on the cheek, I'd be upset too.

To Player Two<3

I'm sorry Jere, I knew that you wouldn't do that to me but it was just this fear and all.

Player Two<3

It's ok Micah, I understand where you are coming from

To Player Two<3

Wait, you said Brooke was in a relationship? With who?

Player Two<3

Chloe, you didn't know that?

To Player Two<3

WHAT??? Chloe?? Never Told???? Me??

Player Two<3

She didn't?

To Player Two<3

Ahbchjbadb

No

Player Two<3

Oh

Well, Mr. Drepes is coming so I gotta go, come to my locker before next period ok?

To Player Two<3

Ok, I will<3 love you

Player Two<3

Love you too

I was glad that I was wrong. I really hated being paranoid about everything, but that's kinda who I was. I regret even thinking Jeremy would do anything like that. I looked at my phone and there was still 10 minutes of class left. If I were to leave now, I could've gotten caught by an admin, and detention was not how I wanted to spend my birthday. I grabbed the necklace that hung around my neck. Jeremy really was an amazing gift giver.

Lispy Bi

Nice to know you aren't dead

To Lispy Bi

Yea, I guess so

Lispy Bi

You really gave Jeremy a heart attack according to Jenna. She told me she was literally gonna send the SWAT team to find you

I really did love my friends. They were all sweet people who were always there for me.

Pinkberry Girl

Hey, I heard about what happened. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. I'll literally do anything to make it up to you! I didn't think about how my actions could make other people feel and I'm sorry. Btw, I definitely don't like Jeremy like that. You are the only person Jeremy is into (except for Phillipa Soo hahah) So don't worry!

To Pinkberry Girl

Brooke, I really appreciate everything you said. And I got jealous and it was pretty dumb, and I knew you weren't doing it on purpose. So I'm the one who should be sorry.

Pinkberry Girl

Oh nonsense, you are too sweet. It's my bad Michael, and I know it is. Don't apologize and don't let anyone say your feelings are valid! But tomorrow I'm taking you out and we are gonna have fun ok???

Plue I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Chloe

I was going to but it totally left my mind

To Pinkberry Girl

Thanks Brooke, you are amazing friend

Pinkberry Girl

I try, now I better see you next period, I need help with chemistry and you are actually good, no matter how much you say you suck at it

To Pinkberry Girl

Well Mrs. Wales can suck it

Pinkberry Girl

AHHAHAHA

TRUE

To Pinkberry Girl

But I promise I'll be there

Pinkberry Girl

Good :)

My worries washed away. For the first time in a while, I had no doubt that Jeremy cared for me. Now to enjoy the rest of my birthday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided it was way too long to have Michael's party in this chapter so it's gonna be in the next one!


	5. Mikey's Actual Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WHO'S READY FOR A BIRTHDAY PARTY?

Six o'clock rolled around quite fast and I was excited. I was waiting for everyone to show up. This was my first real party. I've had birthday parties but the only ones who showed up were Jeremy and my cousins. My moms were excited to meet all of my friends. The only ones they have met were Jeremy and Rich. They loved both of them so they were excited to meet the rest.

"I never thought I'd see the day Mikey has actual friends at his parties." Nanay said.

"Neither did I nanay." I said with a smile.

Jeremy was the first one to arrive. I opened the door and not only was Jeremy standing there, but his dad was.

"Hey Jere, Hey Mr. Heere."

"Hey Michael, nice to see you. Your moms invited me, I hope you are ok with that."  
My smile grew.

"Of course it's ok, I'm glad you are here, or should I say Heere? Come in!"

Mr. Heere chuckled.

"You would think after twelve years of friendship you wouldn't still use the Heere last name joke."

"Nope, it's my joke forever sir, but one day, it's gonna be my last name too."

Jeremy's face exploded red and Mr. Heere elbowed Jeremy.

"You picked a good one son."

He didn't say anything, he just nodded. I stepped out of the way and they entered my house.

"Steve, Jeremy, nice to see you two." Ma said as she stepped out of the kitchen.

"Nice to see you too Tala, where's Carmen?"

"Right here, now give me a hug." Nanay said.

"Where do you want us to put these?" Mr. Heere asked, holding up some bags.

"Put them here." Ma said and pointed at the coffee table that sat in the living room.

He placed down the bags. There was another knock on the door. I opened it and there was Christine. She was turned around as she waved to her mom who was in her car. I waved to Christine's mom and she waved back. Christine stopped waving and turned to look at me and she looked surprised.

"Oh hey Mikey! Didn't know you opened the door. Happy birthday! Again that is."

"Thanks Christine, come on in." I let her in the house. Before I even had to say anything, she took off her shoes. Her mix matched socks suited her.

"Your house is really nice Mikey."

"Thanks Chris."

"Who's this?" Ma asked.

"Ma, this is Christine."

"Yup, Christine Canigula. It's so nice to meet you, I've heard so much about you."

"Trust me, I've heard a lot about you too."

My eyes widened. My mom wasn't supposed to say that. Of course I never trash talked Christine, you would have to be a horrible person to do that. I did talk about how jealous of her I was though.

"Really?"

"Yeah, you used to date Jeremy, right?"

"Oh... um yeah, I did. But I'm super happy Michael and Jeremy are together. They are super cute!"

I really hoped my mom didn't make Christine uncomfortable.

"Mikey, you were right, she is a sweetheart. And don't worry, when I said I heard a lot about you, it was all good things."

Christine turned and looked at me.

"She's right. I told her about how you were amazing and how even though I was jealous of you and Jeremy, I couldn't even be mad at you because you were so nice and everything."

She smiled.

"I knew that you wouldn't say anything mean, you are too great for that. Just caught me off guard."

I nodded.

"You can put that on the coffee table." Ma said, referring to the bag Christine was holding.

"Oh, thank you."

Christine placed her bag down on the table. Another knock on the door. I opened it.

"What's up Mell?"

"Hey Carl."

"Are you ever gonna stop doing that?"

"Nope, now come on in."

I let her in, reminding her to take off her shoes.

"Can I guess who this is?" Ma asked.

"Sure, take a stab."

"She looks like a Charlotte, is your name Charlotte?"

Jenna and I started dying of laughter.

"How off am I?"

"Oh, hey Jenna." Christine said happily.

My mom's jaw dropped.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry honey."

Jenna shook her head.

"It's ok Mrs. Mell, gave me a good laugh. It's nice to finally meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, oh this is THE Jenna you were referring to?"

Ok, so maybe I did give my moms a quick run down of my friends coming, though I knew ma wasn't really listening. She was also awful at remembering names.

"Yes ma, this is the famous Jenna."

She looked at Jenna and smiled.

"Thank you for being so great to my son."

"Well your son is pretty great."

"But if your name isn't Charlotte, why did Michael call you Carl? Not like Carl makes much sense either way but still."

"Ask your son, he's weird."

My mom nodded in agreement.

"Carl is a news anchor ma and Jenna is like super observant and gets the news before like anyone else."

"He's right about that."

I was gonna say something but then I got a text on my phone.

Mythic Bitch

Open up Mell

I opened the door and there stood Brooke and Chloe.

"Hey Michael." Chloe said.

"Hey Mikey!"

"Hey guys. Thanks for coming."

"Not like we had much better to do."

Brooke shot a glare at Chloe.

"I'm kidding, I'm happy to be here."

"Is it guessing time?" Ma asked.

"Um, is it what time now?"

"Go ahead ma." I said with a smile.

"Sabrina and Brittany?"

Chloe and Brooke gave each other a confused look and then looked at me.

"Brooke and Chloe ma."

Brooke smiled and Chloe was still confused.

"Which one was I supposed to be Mrs.Mell?" Brooke asked.

"You were Sabrina."

"I- huh?"

"My mom was trying to guess your names." I explained.

"Why does everyone think my name is Brittany?"

"You look like a Brittany."

Chloe gave me a hard glare.

"Sorry but I don't lie. Now take off your shoes and do whatever." I said with a smile.

They did as I said. Now all we were waiting for was Rich and Jake.

"Yo Michael! Open up." Came a yell followed by loud knocking.

Speak of the devil. I opened the door and there stood Rich and Jake.

"YO MIKEY!"

"Rich, babe, calm down."

"I know that voice anywhere, oh hello honey."

Instead of ma, it was nanay.

"Hey Mrs. Mell."

"Who's this?" Nanay asked.

"What? You aren't gonna guess who this is?"

"Well, I guess I can, I remember the names you gave slightly, so is this Jake? Or was it Josh? I'm sorry honey, what's your name?"

Jake grinned.

"You were right the first time ma'am. I'm Jake, Jake Dillinger. Nice to meet you, Mrs. Mell."

"Nice to meet you too, now Micah, let the nice boy instead, oh and let Rich in too."

Jake chuckled and once again, Rich was offended.

"Is it national bully Rich day for the Mells?"

"No honey, that's next Tuesday."

I stepped aside and let Rich and Jake enter.

"You have a lovely home Mrs. Mell."

"Oh thank you Jake, you and Christine are my favorites." Nanay said with a smile.

"Wow! Rude!" Jeremy and Rich said at the same time.

"Hey, y'all be be offended, she didn't even say I was her favorite and I'M HER CHILD."

"I guess you can be my favorite too."

We all walked into my living room. It was nice seeing all the people I cared about sitting in one room together.

"You guys wanna chill in my room for a while?" I asked.

All my friends nodded. I led them into my room.

"Whoa, your room is awesome!" Christine exclaimed.

My room was very decorated. It had lots of posters that littered the walls. I also had quite a few limited edition things sitting on my shelfs. I also had a display of vintage sodas. I got quite a few sodas each time. I would put one of each on the shelf and the rest sat in the fridge downstairs in the basement. I had a vinyl collection that was nicely put together next to my record player. I had my skates laying next to my bedside table. My video games were stacked next to my consoles.

"Thanks Chris, you guys wanna play a game?"

"Anything that isn't Monopoly is fine with me."

"Yeah, Rich gets too competitive."

"I do not!"

"You literally didn't talk to me for a week because I bought the property you wanted." Jake said.

"Well, to be fair, I did want it a lot." Rich huffed.

Jake kissed his cheek and Rich smiled. They were really cute together. I'm glad someone could step up and treat Rich the way he deserved to be treated when I couldn't.

"Cards Against Humanity?"

"You have Cards Against Humanity? You officially have the best house." Chloe said.

Brooke looked at her.

"Don't look at me like that, who doesn't love Cards Against Humanity?"

"That's fair."

We spent our time laughing and having fun. This is what I dreamed of. Having friends, having Jeremy by my side as my boyfriend.

"Hey guys, wanna see a video of Jeremy?"

"A what now?" Jeremy asked, obviously confused.

"Oh totally, instant blackmail opportunity."

"What video are you showing them?" Jeremy asked but I ignored him.

I pulled out my phone and looked for the video that I had saved in my favorites. I pressed play and the music for Crusin for a Brusin played.

"WHEN WAS THIS?" Jeremy screeched.

"The night I came over and you asked me out. Now hush and let them watch."

Jeremy had his face hiding in his hands. Everyone was cackling. I put my phone on the floor and pulled Jeremy into my arms.

"I can't believe you've done this to me, I'm never gonna live it down." Jeremy mumbled into his hands.

"Oh come on Jere, you looked cute, you always do." I said and kissed the top of his head.

"Who knew our buddy was a dancer?" Rich asked, still laughing.

Everyone was laughing, except Jeremy. Jeremy just groaned.

"Are you mad?" I whispered in Jeremy's ear.

"No, just mortified."

"Aw, it's ok, now they know my boyfriend is an actor, singer and dancer. You're a triple threat Jere."

"Yeah yeah."

"Michael! We have food ready!" Nanay called.

I've never seen Rich or Jake move so fast. The rest of us chuckled at them.

"They really are a perfect match." Jenna said and she got up.

"Agreed."

We all made our way downstairs. My moms always went overboard on, well anything. There was lots of food that had been prepared. They even made my favorite food, which was lobster mac and cheese. Ma pulled me aside.

"Are Rich and Jake dating?" She whispered to me.

"Yeah ma, they are. Aren't they perfect for each other?"

Ma nodded.

"Yeah, they seemed to be the dating type. I was just gonna say that I don't know how you and Rich dated for so long. No offense to either of you or anything, but it was so obvious the chemistry wasn't there. You can just tell Rich likes Jake."

I looked at them goofing around.

"Yeah, you can."

"Now, go eat."

I grabbed some food.

"I call dibs sitting next to Mikey!" Christine called.

"I do too!" Jenna said.

"What the hell? He's my boyfriend, I get boyfriend rights. Tell them I get boyfriend rights Micah."

"I don't know, maybe there should be a rap battle or something."

"I would kill everyone in a rap battle and you know that Mell."

"That's true."

"Ugh, fine, Jeremy, I'll be nice. You can sit next to Michael. You too Jenna, as long as I can sit across from him."

Jeremy had a proud grin on his face.

"Thank you Christine." Jenna said with a smile.

"Jeremy, say thank you to Christine."

"Thank you Christine."

She smiled and went to sit down.

Jeremy, Jenna, Christine and I sat around the table while Jake, Rich, Chloe and Brooke sat at the island. Mr. Heere and both my moms sat on the couches. We started eating. Before I could grab my fork, Jeremy grabbed my hand.

"Babe, whatcha doing there?"

"Holding your hand."

"But now it's hard to eat, you stole my good hand Jere."

"Oh..." Jeremy says and starts to let go but I squeeze his hand.

"I'll live."

This party is better than I expected. We got done eating for the most part and we were just talking.  
"Anyone wanna put on some music, I got the speaker." Nanay said.

Christine dashed from her spot at the table, grabbed the speaker, thanked nanay, and ran back. She connected her phone to the speaker and put on some music. Based on what I remembered, it was Heathers.

"This is Michael's song." Christine declared.

I was gonna ask why but I then got my answer.

"I love my dead gay son!" Christine and Jeremy sang.

"I'm not dead?"

"Details, details."

"You know what I wanna see for my birthday?"

"What's that Mell?"

"I wanna see Jeremy and Christine dance to Candy Store."

Jeremy choked on his food. I patted his back in order to help him.

"What? Why?"

"Because, it will be cute, plus I know you know the choreography."

Jeremy's eyes widened.

"I mean who doesn't?" Jake called from the island.

"You know Candy Store choreography?"

"Christine taught me when we were together."

"Now I need to see this!" Chloe exclaimed.

"I'm game." Jake said.

"Me too!" Christine said happily.

Everyone turned to look at Jeremy.

"Come on Jere!"

"Jerry just do it."

"Jeremy do it."

"Brooke? Please help me." Jeremy pleaded.

Brooke looked at me and smiled.

"Well, Michael did ask for it for his birthday so...."

Jeremy looked defeated.

"Fine."

Cheers were heard throughout the house.

"I call Heather McNamara!" Christine said.

"You don't want Heather Chandler?" Brooke asked.

"No, I wanna see Jake be Heather Chandler."

"Hell Yeah!" Jake called out excitedly.

"Why do I have to be Duke?" Jeremy asked.

"You came in last so you get who you get." Jake reasons.

Jeremy rolled his eyes.

"You better love me after this." Jeremy said to me.

"I already love you, now go be a good Heather Duke."

He begrudgingly got up from his seat and stood. Jenna played the music and let me say, it was amazing. Jake and Christine were very confident and had no problem. Jeremy on the other hand was completely embarrassed but it was really cute. Of course Jenna recorded it on her phone. She sent me the video before I even asked for it. Rich and Chloe were getting a kick out of it. Brooke was just bopping along to the music. Mr. Heere and my moms were just shocked that he actually went through with it.

"That was awesome!" I said as soon as they ended.

Everyone else agreed.

"What's this?" Jenna asked as she glanced at the next song.

Christine looked at the phone and smiled.

"It's a song from Dear Evan Hansen. It's a love song."

"Only Us?" Jeremy asked.

"Yeah!"

Jeremy walked over to me and held out his hand.

"Can I have this dance?"

My eyes widened.

"I can't dance Jere."

"Ok, and? One that's a lie, I've seen you dance and two, it doesn't matter."

I smiled and took Jeremy's hand. I got up and Christine played the music. When I started dancing with Jeremy, the world melted away. Jeremy was so gentle and made everything better. I vaguely knew the song from when Jeremy told me to listen to it when we were hanging out one day. We were playing Apocalypse of the Damned and he told me he really loved Dear Evan Hansen ever since Christine introduced it to him. This was back when they were still together and he was talking about how this was exactly how he felt about her. It was really cute to watch him be all happy, even if he was with someone else. But now, it really was just Jeremy and I. We still had our friends and family but it was Jeremy and I against the world, like I always wanted it to be. Jeremy's head was on my chest and we swayed back and forth.

"I'm really happy to be with you Micah." Jeremy said to me.

"I'm happy to be with you too."

I wished everything would stay like that forever. Soon enough, the song ended.

"That was the cutest thing I've ever seen." Brooke said.

Jeremy lifted his head up and looked at me. I pulled him into a kiss.

"Ew, gross dude. Some people are trying to eat!" Rich exclaimed.

I pulled away and stuck my tongue out at Rich.

"I never knew my son was a dancer."

Both Jeremy and I turned to look at Mr. Heere. He was smiling.

"Oh yeah Mr. Heere, he's your everyday triple threat."

Jeremy buried his head in my chest.

"Shut up Mikey." He mumbled.

"Ew, can we just have Michael open his gifts so I no longer have to look at that?" Rich asked.

"Yeah, I agree, this is gross." Chloe said.

I let go of Jeremy and he whined.

"No, come back."

I kissed Jeremy really quick.

"My other friends want to hang out with me too Jere."

"But..."

"Jere."

Jeremy grumbles but lets go of my arm.

"Thank you." 

Everyone made their way to the living room. I sat down in the recliner chair.

"Open mine last." Jeremy said.

"Well Jere, it's kinda hard to tell which is yours if you don't tell me which it is."

He grabs one of the bags off the table and puts it on his lap.

"Well, I guess that settles that."

I grab one of the bags and look for the card. It was a card that had beautiful calligraphy on it.

'Happy Birthday Michael BTW Brooke helped me with the calligraphy so yeah, you can thank her or whatever.'

"Your calligraphy is amazing Brooke."

"Well, I mean, practice makes perfect."

Inside the bag were 3 different candles. A strawberry lemonade one, a pineapple one and a passionfruit and banana one. There was also a lot of candy that laid within the bag.

"Thanks Chloe." I said with a smile.

"Yeah yeah, you're welcome Michael."

I put everything back in the bag and set it on the floor next to me. I picked up another bag. Another card with equally good calligraphy, making me guess it was from Brooke.

'Happy birthday Mikey! You are a wonderful friend and I'm glad you are in my life. Xoxo Brooke'

Inside, was a pair of white headphones, similar to ones I already owned. The difference was these ones were painted. On one side, the Apocalypse of the Damned logo. On the other side, was a constellation and the word Pisces written in calligraphy. There was also a red lava lamp in the bag. Finally, there was like 10 differently flavored packs of gum.

"Did you paint these?" I asked, holding up the headphones.

"Yeah, I love to paint, so I just thought it would be a good idea."

"It's perfect, thank you."

"Of course Michael."

I grabbed another bag and inside was a card with pretty nice handwriting.

'Happy birthday bro.'

"You have really nice handwriting Jake."

"Really? I didn't think so. Thanks man."

The bag was pretty big and I understood why when I opened it. There was a retro gaming poster that laid in the bag.

"Rich said you liked posters and said you didn't have one like this."

"It's perfect. Thanks Jake."

"Keep going, don't thank me yet." He smiled.

There was a black Bob Marley hoodie.

"I know you wear your red hoodie like all the time but I thought you can have a secondary hoodie, just in case."

"Dude, you are amazing!"

"That's not a secret." Jake said, causing a laugh from everyone.

"Thanks Jake."

"Of course, happy birthday."

The next bag was also quite large. The card was almost impossible to read, meaning it was from Rich.

"What does this even say?"

"Dude, can you really not read? It says happy birthday to my favorite gay."

He was proud of himself which made me laugh. Inside, there was a bunch of pride stuff. From patches to pins. I then saw the reason the bag was so big. There was a rainbow flag in the bag, like one that you hung on the wall.

"Oh my god Rich, you really said gay rights today."

"Of course I did."

"Thanks dude."

"Of course, now you better wear that stuff... with PRIDE." He laughed while everyone else groaned at his joke.

I rolled my eyes and picked up another bag. It was blue and white striped and had 'The Dear Evan Hansen bag' written on it. Christine.

'Ironically, what's in this bag isn't Dear Evan Hansen themed like at all but I liked the bag ok? Happy Birthday Mikeyyy! I'm glad you are my friend you big dork<3'

There was a secondary card.

'I know All You Wanna Do is to Get Down on your birthday. There is No Way that you won't. But Don't lose Your Head or anything. (I couldn't think of anything for Heart of Stone or I don't Need Your Love so I'm sorry you have been deprived.'

"I'm sure I'll survive Christine."

In the bag, there were a few things. There was some more candy that Jeremy insisted that I shared with him. There was a mason jar with the words 'The Musical Quote Jar' and a tiny explanation of what was in it.

"Come on, pull one out."

I shook the jar a bit before taking out one of the things.

"The gods are real, yippy skippy!" I read.

I had no clue which musical came from.

"Take a guess where it's from."

"I don't know any musical that mentioned the gods. Um, did they give Percy Jackson a musical or something?"

"Actually, yeah, that's where it's from!"

"Wait really? Dude, I love Percy Jackson, how come no one has shown me this musical?"

"I thought Jeremy told you."

I glare at Jeremy.

"I was going to, I swear."

I went back into the bag and grabbed a box.

"No way! You got me a Zelda Triforce lamp? This is DOPE!"

"I'm glad you like it."

"I love it Christine, thank you."

"Of course!"

There were two more bags laying on the table, along with two cards.

I took one of the bags and grabbed the card. It was in cursive so I knew it was Jenna's.

'Happy birthday Mell. Even though you call me Carl, I still love you<3'

"I love you too Jenna."

There were a few headbands within the bag. There was also a wireless speaker. And finally, there was a mini arcade pac man machine.

"I've wanted one of these forever! How did you know?"

"I have my sources." Jenna said with a smile.

"Thank you Carl!"

"Michael I will literally end you."

We both laughed.

I grabbed the last bag off the table in confusion.

"Did you think I wasn't gonna get you something?" Mr. Heere asked.

"I... um, you didn't have to...really, none of you did."

"Nonsense Michael. Now I hope you enjoy it."

I took the card out of the bag.

'Happy birthday Michael. Thank you for everything you do for my son. He's been happier since he started dating you. I can't wait until when I can officially call you my son in law. Until then, you are unofficially my son in law.'

My face was definitely red but I chose to not address it.

I pulled out a book, it was the Dear Evan Hansen playwright.

"Jeremy mentioned you saying you liked the musical so I thought...."

"This is awesome! We gotta like act this out Jere!"

"Yes Michael, we will."

Then, I pulled out a Filipino flag. My smile grew bigger.

"This is awesome! Thanks Mr. Heere."

"Anytime Michael. I was gonna get more but Jeremy didn't want me to one up him."

"Dad!" Jeremy whined.

I went to go grab the bag from Jeremy's lap but he pulled it away.

"Open the cards first."

"Is this really necessary?"

"Yes, there's a lot to go through Micah."

I rolled my eyes and grabbed the cards from the table. I knew they were both from my moms.

'Happy birthday baby. I love you more than life<3'

'Maligayang kaarawan anak. Mahal kita."

"I love you both too."

My moms both ran over to me and gave me a big hug.

"Now don't spend all that money in one place, ok?"

Each of them gave me $100. I could take Jeremy on amazing dates with this money.

"Alright, Jeremy, give Michael his gift!" Christine exclaimed.

"Alright, here Micah."

Jeremy handed me the bag and it was heavy.

"Did you put a ton of bricks in here?"

I took out the card.

'You push all of my buttons but you're my boyfriend so I guess I gotta deal with it.'

The first thing I noticed was the red ghost plush I was talking about on our date.

"You did not!"

"I think I did." Jeremy said with a smirk.

I kept looking in the bag. I pulled out a mug. It had a cute cat on it that said 'dungeon mewoster'.

I looked at Jeremy and he giggled. The cup was filled with Jolly Ranchers. Then I pulled out a Dear Evan Hansen vinyl. My smile grew wider. I then grabbed a picture frame with a collage of pictures. The pictures were of the two of us. It had 'Player One + Player Two' written on it (using Brooke's calligraphy.) There was also a rainbow picture of pac man.

"Jeez Jere, and you said I was extra."

"To be fair.... I got nothing. I just like being extra. Now keep going, there should be two more things in there."

The first thing I grabbed was a phone case. It was a red phone case with 'Riends' on it. Jeremy pulled out his phone. It was a similar case, only in blue but it had 'Boyf' on it. The last thing I grabbed was a small black box. I looked at it in confusion. I opened the box and inside, was a pac man ring.

"Did Jeremy lowkey just propose to Michael?" Jenna asked.

"I--No!" He squeaked.

Everyone laughed at the way Jeremy's face grew red.

"Thanks Jere, I loved everything." I said with a smile.

"I'm glad you did."

We continued to chill out and have fun and soon enough, everyone had left. It was just Jeremy and his dad.

"I'm gonna head out, Jeremy, you staying here?"

"Yeah, if that's ok with you."

"Huh?"

"Do you want me to stay over?"

"Oh yeah. Sorry, wasn't paying attention."

"Alright, goodnight guys."  
And like that, Mr. Heere left.

"You two go upstairs, we'll clean up."

"Alright, thanks ma, thanks nanay, goodnight, love you."

"Love you too." They both said.

Jeremy and I grabbed my bags and made our way upstairs. I noticed Jeremy kept looking at me, and he looked kinda upset. We got into my room and I sat on the bed. He sat down next to me.

"What's up Jere? You look kinda down."

He looked at me.

"Do you think we are... going too fast?"

I furrowed my eyebrows.

"I didn't think so, do you think that?"

"Well no, but I feel like everyone thinks that. It's just... nevermind, it's dumb."

I grabbed Jeremy's hands that were laid on his lap.

"If it makes you upset, it's not dumb, just tell me."

"Christine left me because I didn't give her enough attention, so I'm giving you more, I'm just scared it's too much for you."

"Jere, you know that's not why Christine broke up with you, well not fully at least. And you are too much, ok? And if you were, I would've told you. And trust me, I went through the same thought this morning, the one where people thought we were going too fast but my moms told me that we shouldn't care about what others think, ok? As long as we are good with it, when why does it matter about anyone else? This is between us, not them, alright?"

Jeremy nodded.

"Thanks Micah, hearing it from you makes me feel better. My dad tried to tell me the same thing but it was hard to believe him."

"We are ok, we are gonna be ok."

Jeremy smiled, which caused me to smile.

"Can you give me the ring I got you?"

"Huh?"

"The ring Micah, can I see it?"

"Oh yeah, hold on."

I grabbed the box from the bag and handed it to Jeremy. He slid off the bed, laughing as he did and got onto one knee on the ground in front of me.

"Will you marry this dingus?" He was laughing throughout the whole thing.

I rolled my eyes but it was hard not to laugh at him.

"You're a dork."

His smile grew.

"I'm not hearing a yes."

"Fine, I guess." I jokingly rolled my eyes.

He grabbed my hand and slipped on the ring.

"This is what the future holds for us."

"Except I'm gonna be the one proposing."

"Yeah right."

"We all know it's gonna be me."

"I have a way to settle this."

"How?" I asked.

Jeremy pulls out his phone and starts texting.

I feel my phone buzz so I take it out of my pocket.

Goin' Viral Deserved Better

Player Two<3

So quick question, who would propose, me or Michael?

To Going Viral Deserved Better

Hbajkdkbskdkbhkd Jeremy!!!

Carl Azuz

Michael, no argument there

Pinkberry Girl

Mikey

Theatre Geek

Umm, I mean I think it would be Mikey but it can go either way

Lispy Bi

Mikey is the sap so

Sbarro Bro

Why?

Mythic Bitch

The real question is who cares?

Pinkberry Girl

Be nice Chloe

Mythic Bitch

Fine, ig Michael

Sbarro Bro

Is no one gonna answer my question?

Lispy Bi

No, now answer Jeremy's question

Sbarro Bro

Umm Michael?

Player Two<3

Racism

To Player Two<3

That's?? Not??? Racism??

Player Two<3

Did i ask?

But I'm offended, I would totally propose to Michael

Carl Azuz

Lies but ok

Player Two<3

Ajdhfhrisuf Christine is my only friend here

Sbarro Bro

But she said Michael too???

Player Two<3

Yea but she said there was a possibility I would so...

Mythic Bitch

Christine is just being Christine, she knew that's what you wanted to hear

Jeremy looks up from his phone and pouts.

"Don't pout baby, come here."

Jeremy sat on the bed next to me. I pulled him into a kiss. After I pulled away, he still had the pout on his face, so I did the most logical thing to do in this situation. Jeremy started laughing really hard.

"Micah! Stop! You know I'm ticklish! Stop!"

"Will you stop pouting?"

Jeremy only shrugged so I tickled him again.

"Ok! Ok! I'll stop pouting, just don't!"

I stopped tickling him. He looked at me and smiled.

"God, I love you."

My smile widened.

"I love you too Jere."

"Are you tired?"

I shook my head.

"Wanna play something?"

"Yeah, I'm down with whatever."

"Mario Kart?"

"I'm gonna kick your ass in Mario Kart."

"Yeah right."

"Watch me."

We spent the rest of our time awake playing video games and talking. Everything was great when Jeremy was by my side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Michael would totally propose to Jeremy


	6. Sick Jerebear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael and Jeremy were super excited about their one month anniversary date but Jeremy's immune system has no mercy.

Our one month date was today and I was excited. We were gonna go laser tagging then go get some food and then go to Pinkberry.

Player Two<3

I'm on my way, we only have 7 hours of school then its date time!!!!

I knew Jeremy probably wouldn't answer so I just parked outside his house.

Player Two<3

Jere, hurry up, we are running late  
No answer. Now that was weird. He usually always answered after the second text.

Player Two<3

Jere?

If you don't answer me in two minutes, I will come inside and get you.

Two minutes passed and no answer. I hopped out of my car and made my way to the porch. I opened the door.

"Hello? Mr. Heere? Jeremy?"

I walked upstairs and knocked on Jeremy's door. When there was no answer, I started to get worried.

"I'm coming in Jere."

I slowly opened the door and saw Jere laying on his bed. He seemed to still be asleep. I walked up to the side of his bed. I looked at his bedside table. Laying there was his phone, with a sticky note on it.

Had to go in early, I'll see you later buddy

Well that answered where Mr. Heere was.

"Hey babe, wake up." I said as I lightly shook him.

Jeremy slowly woke up. He groaned and squinted his eyes.

"Micah? What are you doing here?" His voice sounded strained.

"We have school, you didn't answer the phone and I got worried." I explained.

His eyes widened. He quickly sat up and got out of bed. He halted the moment he stood up.

"Jere, you ok?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm good." He started walking to his dresser.

Something about him seemed off. My suspicions were answered when he sniffled. I put my hand on his face and it was hot.

"Jere, you are burning up, lay back down." I instructed.

He shook his head but then closed his eyes hard. I lead him back to his bed.

"What's wrong baby?"

"I feel hot and dizzy."

"Anything else?"

"My throat hurts, and my nose is stuffy."

"Sounds like a cold, maybe even the flu. Hold on, let me get the thermometer."

"No, I'm fine. We have our date today, and I'm not gonna be the one to mess it up."

"Jere, I'm not letting you go if you are sick."

"But it's our one month today." Jeremy said with a frown.

"Yeah, I know but your health is more important right now."

"But you were excited and so was I."

Jeremy sneezed three times.

"Bless you. We can go out when you get better."

"But it won't be our one month then."

"I know Jere but you need to stay home."

Before he could say anything else, I left his room and went to the bathroom. There, I raided his medicine cabinet. I grabbed a thermometer and a pack of pills. I then went into the kitchen and grabbed Jeremy some orange juice. I was pretty bummed we couldn't go on our date but Jeremy needed to stay home in order to help him feel better. I walked back into his room.

"Here, I got you some juice and some medicine."

I handed him the juice and the pack of pills. He seemed uneasy when he saw the pills in his hand.

"Jere, those are gonna help you."

Jeremy made a choked noise.

"No, not like that, the SQUIP isn't gonna come back. I have Mountain Dew Red if it does. This is gonna help you stop being sick. Would I ever give you something that was gonna hurt you?"

He shocked his head.

"I'll be right here, nothing is gonna happen to you." I assured him.

"Can you... hold my hand while I take it?"

"Of course Jere."

I sat down next to him on the bed. I slowly grabbed his hand and squeezed it. He glupped before putting the pill in his mouth and then chasing it with orange juice.

"There you go Jere." I said as I rubbed his back.

"Thanks Micah... wait, you should be at school right now!" He explained as his voice cracked.

"I'm not going, I'm gonna stay here and make you feel better."

"You are gonna get sick." Jeremy warned.

"The Mells don't get sick." I said proudly.

Jeremy rolled his eyes.

"Are you hungry?" I asked him.

"No, I just wanna sleep."

"Alright, lay down babe."

He put the juice down on the bedside table. He got under the covers.

"Sleep well Jere." I said and then kissed his forehead.

"You are gonna leave?"

"I'm just gonna go downstairs and let you sleep."

"But I want you here. I wanna cuddle."

"Are you sure?"

"If I have to stay here and not be able to go on our date, then I better be able to hang out with you here."

I smiled. I laid down next to Jeremy. I put my glasses on Jeremy's bedside table and then wrapped my arms around him. I then felt my eyes close and I fell into a deep sleep.

++++++

I woke up when I felt Jeremy squirm in my arms.

"Michael, I'm sorry!"

"Jere, what's going on?" I asked, concern filling my voice.

"Please Micah, I won't ever leave you again."

Jeremy's squirming got more intense. I shot up and started shaking Jeremy lightly.

"Jere, wake up, I'm right here."

I kept shaking him until he shot up.

"Michael, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you! Please, I won't ever leave you again!" Jeremy cried and then grabbed onto me.

I shushed him and rubbed his back.

"Jere, it's ok. I'm here. You didn't hurt me. It's ok."

I kissed him on the head and kept trying to comfort him.

"Jere, I'm not mad. You did nothing wrong."

His crying started to simmer down.

"I'm sorry Micah, I'm a total mess."

"Don't say that, it's ok Jere. I'm here for you."

"You were so mad at me. I don't blame you after everything I did."

"That was all just a bad dream. I'm not mad."

I felt his head and it was warmer than before.

"Jeez Jere, you are hotter than before. Let me take your temperature. I completely forgot to before."

I grabbed around the desk, trying to get my glasses. I finally got them and put them on. I then grabbed the thermometer.

"Open up Jere."

He opened up and I put the thermometer in his mouth. I waited about 30 seconds and then it beeped.

"102.4"

Jeremy groaned and laid back down.

"Are you hungry now? I can go buy you some soup."

"I guess I'm hungry but you don't gotta buy me soup."

"I'm gonna buy you soup ok, I'll take 20 minutes max, alright?"

"Fine." Jeremy huffed.

I gave him a peck on the cheek before getting off his bed.

"20 minutes." I assured him.

"Can it be sooner?"

"I'll try, baby. Call me if you need me."

I made my way down the stairs and suddenly heard my ringtone going off. Surprisingly, it was Jake. I answered it. I continued walking to my car.

"Hey Jake, what's up?"

"Where the hell are you and Jeremy man? We've all been texting you two."

"Jeremy's sick and I'm taking care of him. We both fell asleep, so I didn't see the messages."

I put Jake on speaker so I could drive. I pulled out of the driveway and made my way to the grocery store.

"Oh, that makes sense. Sorry dude, I was just worried about you guys. Thought something happened to you two on the way here. Tell Jeremy I hope he feels better."

"Alright Jake, I will, thanks for checking up on us."

"No problem man. Gotta go, talk to you later man."

"Talk to you later Jake."

He hung up the phone. I was listening to the radio since I didn't have the chance to connect my phone to the aux. I pulled into the parking lot of the nearest grocery store. I quickly walked into the store. I put on my headphones and walked the almost empty aisles. I bought Jeremy some chicken soup, the only kind of soup Jeremy liked. To be fair, he didn't eat seafood so that eliminated the best soup options. To anyone who liked tomato soup, I really questioned their life choices. I decided to buy Jeremy some chocolate ice cream while I was at it. I went to the self checkout and quickly paid for the soup and ice cream. I went back to my car and decided to go to the Seven-Eleven across the street to buy Jere and I slushies. I got out of the car and walked through the front door. Standing at the counter was Erika. She was there during my normal slushie runs.

"Hey Michael, you're a little early." She said as she glanced at her watch.

"Yeah, Jeremy's sick and I decided to stay and take care of him."

Erika knew all about Jeremy. Other than all the times I came to the store with Jeremy, she also heard all about him just from me. Erika and I grew to be pretty good friends just because how often I went to Seven-Eleven.

"Aw, that's sweet of you. You two are cute."

"Thanks, we try. How are you, Erika?" I asked.

"My now ex boyfriend is a douchebag and my mom is pressuring me into being a doctor so that's how things are going." She said with a sigh.

"That's awful Erika, I'm sorry. You deserve so much better than that. And who cares what your mom says?"

"Well, I kinda have to now. I lived with my boyfriend and since we broke up, I had to go back to living with my mom. She might kick me out if I tell her I don't wanna be a doctor."

"That's awful. Do you really think she'll kick you out."

She shrugged.

"I don't know, she's unpredictable like that."

"I'm really sorry Erika."

"It's alright, thanks for listening Michael."

"Of course, if you need help, just let me know, I'll try."

"You're a sweet kid."

"I try."

She smiles and that makes me feel slightly better. I get the slushies, a blue raspberry for Jeremy and a cherry one for me. I paid for the slushies and went back to my car. I started making my way back to Jeremy's house. My special ringtone for Jeremy went off. I stopped at the stop sign that was down the street from Jeremy's house to answer it. I put it on speaker.

"Hey babe, whatcha need?"

"You are taking too long." Jeremy whined.

"Has it been 20 minutes already?"

"I don't know or care, I want you here."

"Jere, I'm literally down the street."

"Hurry up."

The call hung up and I chuckled. Jeremy had always been a clingy person when he was sick. I made it back to his house. I put the ice cream in the freezer and went upstairs into Jeremy's room.

"Micah!" Jeremy said excitedly, but then started coughing.

"Be careful there Jere, I got you a slushie."

Jeremy sat up and clapped his hands, similarly to how a child would. It was absolutely adorable.

"Thank you." He said and grabbed the slushie out of my hands.

"Now, can I go downstairs and make you soup?"

"I'm coming with you." Jeremy said and started to stand up.

"No, you stay in bed." I said and lightly pushed him back into bed.

"But I'm bored all by myself." Jeremy complained.

"Fine, you can come with me but you gotta lay on the couch."

"Yay!" Jeremy cheered.

I helped Jeremy out of bed and helped him down the stairs, making sure he didn;t fall and hurt himself.

"Can you go and get my phone?" Jeremy asked as I set him down on the couch.  
"Sure."

I ran up the stairs and grabbed Jeremy's phone off the bedside table. I also grabbed him a blanket and pillow. I went back downstairs and gave Jeremy his phone.

"Can I have your phone too?"

I furrowed my eyebrows as I dug my phone out of my pocket. I handed it to him.

"I don;t mind you having my phone or anything but why do you want it when you have your phone?" I asked.

Jeremy just shrugged. I gave Jeremy the remote in case he wanted to watch some tv and went into the kitchen. I took the soup out of the bag and heated it up for him. Soon enough, the soup was made. Jeremy looked like he was on the verge of sleeping.

"Hey Jere, I have soup ready, do you still want it or are you tired?"

"No, I want soup. I'm starving." He said and sat up on the couch.

I handed him the bowl of soup.

"Aren't you gonna eat?" Jeremy asked.

"Eh, I didn't buy anything for myself at the store."

"Dude, grab something from my fridge or something. My dad doesn't care."

"You sure?"

"You are saving his child from death, I'm sure he won't mind."

"I highly doubt you are dying."

"Whatever, go get some food."

I made myself a bowl of mac and cheese. I sat down on the couch and Jeremy finally gave me back my phone. I then realized why he wanted it, to spam my Snapchat story. I then went to read all of my texts, and I had a whole bunch of them to go through.

Carl Azuz

What's with you and not coming to class?

Wait, where's Jeremy?

Are you two ok?

Michael

Mell

ANswer me

I will literally send someone to find you two

If I find out you aren't answering for a dumb reason, I'm literally gonna kill you

Mell.

Oh, Jake just told me why, you're off the hook, I won't stab you now

Pinkberry Girl

Hey, are you and Jeremy ok? You didn't meet us over at the staircase today.

You also weren't in chemistry. Please text me back Mikey, I'm worried. Jeremy won't text me either.

Oh, please tell Jeremy I said feel better.

I'll be coming over there later.

Theatre Geek

Mikey!!

Where are you?

Also where is Jeremy?

Please tell me you are ok.

You're giving me the Fright Of My Life.

Hahaha musical reference

Beetlejuice strikes again!

But really please text meeee

Tell my musical buddy to feel better!! Also if you get sick, I'll steal your knees

Lispy Bi

Bro

Exie

My homieslice

Buddy

Are you dead?

Actually I really hope not

Oh nvm you're alive

Sbarro Bro

Everyone is freaking out, it's kinda ruining the vibe

I'm kidding, are you two good?

If you don't answer in a few, I'm calling you

Mythic Bitch

Where r u?

"Jeez, our friends are extra."

"Yeah, I noticed, You had over 20 text notifications, I was wondering who you pissed off this time."

We both laughed. I spent the rest of the day cuddling with Jeremy. Sure, I would rather be out with him having fun, this felt nice too.

+++++++

There was a knock at the door. Jeremy was asleep on my lap so I slowly slid him off my lap and went to the door. Standing there, was Brooke and Chloe.

"Oh, hey guys, what's up?"

Brooke handed me a folder.

"I got you and Jeremy the work you missed for today. I also got each of you some frozen yogurt."

"Brooke, you really are a saint. Thanks."

"Speaking of Jeremy, where is he?" Chloe asked, sipping at her tea.

"He's asleep on the couch. My poor baby has a fever."

"Gross."

"Chloe, he's sick, that's not nice."

"No, not that, he called Jeremy his poor baby. Gross."

"Hey! I love my boyfriend."

"I love my girlfriend too but you two are gross."

"Don't listen to her Mikey, she's just teasing."

"Right, teasing." She said sarcastically

"Well, thanks Brooke and only Brooke."

"Hey, I drove her."

"And you also insulted the love I have for my boyfriend."

"I also remember your favorite frozen yogurt flavor." She said with a smirk.

"I remembered Jeremy's."

"Jeremy is boring and likes chocolate. At least Michael is diverse."

"To be fair, when Michael and I went to Pinkberry last week, he got Pineapple, not salted caramel so how was I supposed to know?"

"You've gone to Pinkberry with him many times."

"And he's difficult and gets a different flavor like every time."

"Yeah yeah, you better love us for this."

"I do."

"Love you too Mikey!" Brooke exclaimed.

Chloe mumbled something.

"What was that Chloe?" I asked.

"Love you too, or whatever." She said with an eye roll.

"See you guys on Monday."

They said their goodbyes and I made my way back to the living room.

"Who was that?" Jeremy asked groggily.

"It was Brooke and Chloe. They brought us frozen yogurt."

"Yay!" Jeremy cheered.

"And homework."

The smile Jeremy had left his face.

Then, Mr. Heere walked in.

"Hey boys, I didn't expect to see Michael here until later when he came to pick you up."

"Oh, we aren't going out tonight Mr. Heere?"

"Why not?"

"Jeremy here, is sick."

"He is? Sorry I didn't notice earlier sport. I would've tried to see if someone would cover for me." Mr. Heere explained.

"It's alright dad. Mikey stayed with me."

"Thanks Michael." Mr. Heere said with a smile.

"Of course Mr. Heere. We all know Jeremy would die without a second of attention when he's sick."

"Not true!" Jeremy cried.

"Yes it is." Mr. Heere and I said at the same time.

Jeremy crossed his arms across this chest. Both Mr. Heere and I laughed. God I loved this family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this fluff.


	7. Promposal ft.Michael

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prom is coming up and Michael is a procrastinator.

Prom was two weeks away and I was freaking out. I had no clue on how I was gonna ask Jeremy. Most people would assume we were already going together, and even if I didn't ask him, we would still go together, but gestures matter. I had been looking up cute promposals, yeah, I was that desperate but found nothing fitting.

"Michael, it's not a big deal." Chloe said for the 50th time.

"Yes it is Chloe, this is prom, of course it's a big deal."

"Why are you even stressing so much. You and Jeremy are gonna go together anyway."

"Well yeah, but still!"

I knew Chloe was annoyed with me at this point and she had every right to be but I needed help. I couldn't go to Rich, he was the worst secret keeper ever. I couldn't ask Jake, he would tell Rich and then it was over. I could've went to Jenna but she's not really the romantic type. That left me with Chloe, Brooke and Christine. Chloe just happened to be the first person I saw.

"I'm gonna go to Christine, maybe she'll be helpful."

"Thank the lord."

"I'm starting to think you don't actually like me."

Chloe looked at me, her natural scowl turned into a frown.

"Wait, do you really think that?"

"Well, I mean, you seem to be annoyed whenever I talk."

"That's just who I am Michael. You are actually somewhat interesting to talk to."

"Thanks?"

"You're welcome." She said as she patted my shoulder.

She got up and started to walk away.

"Class isn't ever over!"

She ignored me and sat next to Hope, some popular girl in our class. I guess I should go to Christine. She was a hopeless romantic at heart and she also dated Jeremy the longest. I waited for the bell to ring and went to find Christine. I found her at her locker, putting all of her stuff away for lunch.

"Christine, I need help!"

Her face instantly turned worried.

"What's wrong Michael?"

"I don't know how to ask Jeremy to prom."

"Mikey! You should've asked him weeks ago!" Christine exclaimed.

"Wait really? Is it too late?"

"No, at least you didn't wait until the day of. Well, now I gotta help you. What were you thinking?"

"That's my problem, I have no idea."

Christine's eyes widened.

"Oh my gosh, Mikey!"

"What? I've been looking but nothing seemed right."

"Well..." Christine's eyes lit up.

"What?"

Christine reopened her locker and grabbed a small journal and a pen. She then turned back to look at me.

"I think I have the perfect idea."

++++++

It took me 2 day in order to plan everything Christine had suggested. It would've only taken one day if Jeremy didn't insist that we facetime. The moment I sat down and laid out everything, Jeremy had called. I loved the guy but he really did have awful timing. He literally kept me on the phone for 6 hours.

To Player Two<3

Are you busy?

Player Two<3

Am I ever busy? What's up?

To Player Two<3

Can I come over?

Player Two<3

Yea?

To Player Two<3

You sure?

Player Two<3

Yeah I'm sure

It was just kinda random lol

To Player Two<3

Yea Ik, just wanted to hang

I'll be there in 10

Player Two<3

Oki

I grabbed my sign and my speaker and made my way to my car. I finally started feeling the nerves. I knew I shouldn't be nervous, Christine's idea was perfect and I had worked really hard on it. Jeremy would say yes, I was 99% sure but I still had some doubt. What if he thought I was being too much or what if he wanted me to ask him earlier? I got to his house and felt my heart pounding in my chest. Just breathe Michael. He's gonna say yes so you have nothing to worry about. I stepped out of my car and grabbed my stuff from the backseat. I went through his driveway and stopped at his white fence that surrounded the backyard. I unlocked it and stepped into the backyard. I stepped onto the small bit of concrete that laid there. I connected my phone to the speaker Jenna had gotten me, which was super quality by the way.

To Player Two<3

Open your window

Player Two<3

Why??

To Player Two<3

Just do it plz

Player Two<3

Fine

I clicked play on my phone. I saw Jeremy look out his window in confusion.

"Michael? What are you doing?"

"Be quiet and listen."

The soft vocals of Laura Dreyfuss filled the air.

"Micah?"

I held up the sign I made. There was a printed out picture of Evan Hansen on it and it read,

Dear Jeremy Heere, my love for you isn't a lie. Going to Prom without you will be rough, so how about we make it Only Us?

""I can't read it from here Micah!" He called over the music.

"Well get down here!" I called back.

Jeremy quickly closed the window. I soon heard the fence unlock and then open. I held the sign Jeremy's way. He looked at it and then looked at me. He shook his head and I felt my heart crumble. He then smiled and ran to me and pulled me into a hug. That made me smile. I had to drop the sign.

"You are such a dork!" He exclaimed.

"Yes, we are aware. So, how about it?"

"This wasn't obvious enough?"

"Nope, sorry Jere but I gotta hear it."

He rolled his eyes.

"Yes Micah, I'll go to prom with you."

"Yes! It was between this and going all 21 Chump Street on ya."

That caused Jeremy to laugh.

"I love this, thank you. I was gonna ask but Christine talked me out of it."

"She did?"

"Yeah, she said you wouldn't want a big asking or anything."

"I never...." I said in confusion but then realized it.

She totally did that in order to have Jeremy not ask me! I had to thank her for that.

"I'm glad I listened to her, you definitely did way better than I would've."

I laughed. I realized the song had ended. Maybe it had ended before, but I now noticed.

"Hey Ronicaaaaa." Could be heard from the speakers.

"Oh my god Mickey, turn that off!" Jeremy shrieked.

"Nah, I'm good. I think everyone needs to hear the wonders of Blue."

Jeremy's face grew red as the song continued.

"You are the worst." Jeremy said as he buried his head in my chest.

"I'm aware. Now we gotta match for prom." I said with a smile.  
Jeremy looked up at me and scrunched his nose.

"Are we really gonna be that couple?"

"Yes."

"Whatever dork."

"Is that all you call me?"

"I also call you a dweeb and a geek."

"Ah, nice to know I have more than dork to ride on."

He slapped my chest.

"Is this the reason you wanted to come over?"

"No Jere, not at all." I said sarcastically.

"Can I keep the sign?" Jeremy asked.

"What sign?"

"The one you kinda dropped on the floor?"

He picked up the sign I dropped.

"Oh right, that one. Yeah, you can have it."

"We should take a picture." Jeremy suggested.

"We should make Chloe or Brooke drive over to the park and take them there."  
"They'll hate us forever."

"Chloe will, Brooke will love it."

"Do you think Brooke would go on a school night?"

"Why don't we ask her?"

I took out my phone and went to Brooke and I's messages.

To Pinkberry Girl

Hey, u busy?

Pinkberry Girl

Never too busy for you, what's up Mikey?

To Pinkberry Girl

Well, see I asked Jeremy to prom and we wanted to get some cute pictures together

Pinkberry Girl

Say no more, park, 15 minutes. We gotta hurry before the sun goes down.

I'm dragging Chloe there, she knows the best spots at the park

To Pinkberry Girl

You are too kind

Pinkberry Girl

Now get ready! Look nice!

"Brooke is dragging Chloe to the park."

"Really? Chloe is gonna murder us."

"Yeah, but it's ok. Now go throw on some clothes."

"Are my pjs not doing it for you?" Jeremy said with a chuckle.

"Not exactly babe."

"Rude."

I chuckled. Jeremy grabbed my hand and led me to his room.

"What should I wear?" Jeremy asked.

I shrugged.

"Whatever feels right."

"My pjs are feeling pretty right."

I rolled my eyes.

"Just wear something you would normally wear."

"Oh, right."

In the end, Jeremy ended up wearing a navy blue cardigan, a white t-shirt and black jeans.

"Looking good Heere, now hurry up. I don't wanna keep Brooke waiting."

+Tiny Time Skip+

We got to the park and saw Brooke's car. Both of them were looking at their phones, so I decided to go up to Brooke's window and knocked on it. Jeremy and I started dying of laughter when Brooke jumped. She opened the car door and slapped me on the shoulder.

"Hey! Not nice Brooke."

"Neither was scaring the hell out of me."

"Let's get on with this. I got better things to be doing." Chloe grumbled.

"Jeez, why are you so moody?" Jeremy asked.

If looks could kill, Jeremy would certainly be dead.

"Dustin was being an asshole."

"What did he do this time?" I asked.

"So he asked Jenna to prom and she rejected him but then he kept asking and asking. Now he won't leave her alone."

"Jeez, doesn't that dude ever get the hint?"

"No, he doesn't and it pissed me off." Chloe growled.

Her face seemed to soften, at least a little bit.

"But, I'm not gonna let this ruin your prom pictures. Now come on, I have a few cute spots."

"Thanks Chloe, we appreciate it."

"Yeah yeah, now follow me."

She started walking and we followed her. She led us to a river.

"Are you gonna kill us and throw us in the freezing river?"

"Well it's March in New Jersey, I don't know what you expect with the river temperature."

"So you are gonna kill us?"

"If you keep asking questions, I will. There is a bridge I'm taking you to. That's where I had the sophomore semi pictures taken."

"Oh this is where they were taken? I love those pictures."

"Yeah, who doesn't? Anyway, we'll get some light pictures and some good sunset pictures. I thought Brooke told you two to look nice."

"Hey! We look amazing." I argued.

"You look like your normal selves. Not saying that you guys are ugly or anything, you aren't but I was expecting something different."

"I think it suits them." Brooke defended.

Chloe only shrugs.

"Here we are."

Chloe had led us to a nice wood bridge. There was a set of stone stairs a few feet behind the bridge. Trees surrounded the stone staircase. It really was a nice place.

"Alright, so first things first, Jeremy, you and Michael are gonna hold up the sign and stand on the bridge."

I follow Jeremy onto the bridge. We stopped midway and turned to face Brooke and Chloe.

"Get closer together, act like you like each other!" Chloe called.

"I'm pretty sure they do like each other." Brooke commented.

"We very much do!" I called.

"Whatever, just get closer."

Jeremy and I got closer and Jeremy held up the sign.

"Nice big smiles!" Brooke called.

We both smiled and Brooke took the photo.

"Alright, now, give me the sign, we are gonna take some more without it." Chloe said.

"Isn't the point of these pictures to show off the whole promposal?"

"Are you questioning my genius?"

"No." I said quickly and gave Chloe the sign.

"Now, go back and hug him."

"This feels pretty demanding."

"That's because it is, now go." Chloe ordered.

I walked over to Jeremy and pulled him into a hug. I assumed Brooke took pictures of that.

"As much as I hate to say this, now we need a cute kissing one as the sun sets, and we have to do a few of these." Chloe said and she scrunched up her nose.

"I think these are gonna be my favorite ones." I said with a smirk.

"Yeah, me too. I get to kiss you and piss off Chloe, a dream come true really."

"I can hear you guys!"

Brooke, Jeremy and I laughed. I slowly pulled Jeremy into a kiss. I could hear Chloe retching in the background. I started laughing, which broke apart the kiss.

"Mikey! I didn't get the picture!" Brooke complained.

"Blame your girlfriend."

"Chloe, be nice to them, they are cute and want these pictures."

"Fine."

I pulled Jeremy into another kiss.

"Alright, you guys can stop sucking each other's faces!" Chloe exclaimed.

I pulled away and looked at her.

"Weren't you the one who said we needed kissing pictures?" I asked teasingly.

"Yeah and I'm starting to regret it."

"Jere, get on Michael's back."

"How much longer are we gonna be?" Chloe asked.

"Hush, I'm making art Chlo."

Jeremy jumped onto my back and we both smiled.

"Alright, that one is done. I'm gonna do something incredibly stupid but the picture is gonna be cute." Brooke said.

"That scares me." Chloe responded.

Jeremy hopped off my back.

Without saying anything else, Brooke walked close to the river.

"Brooke? Whathca doing?" I asked.

"Pictures." Was all Brooke said.

Brooke stepped onto a large rock that was in the river. She almost fell but caught herself on the rock.

"Brooke! What are you doing?" Chloe asked, seeming to be worried.

"Alright, now, the sun set is very nice from this angle and it's hard to see you but it looks good, now kiss again!" Brooke called out.

"Be careful Brooke!" Chloe yelled.

"I will now kiss you two!"

Jeremy and I looked at each other, shrugged and kissed again.

"Got it! Now, are you guys willing to do something a little stupid?"

"I'm not going in the river!" Jeremy called out.

"I'm not gonna make you go in the river Jere! That would be cruel! I want you two to sit on the railing, hurry, we don't have much time!"

I helped Jeremy slip onto the railing and then hoisted myself onto it.

"Now, get close, jere, put your head on Michael's shoulder, don't smile but don't be serious."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jeremy asked.

"Nevermind." Brooke said and shook her head.

Jeremy did as Brooke instructed.

"Two more."

"Jesus." Chloe complained.

"I'll buy you both food if you stop complaining." I told Chloe.

"Whatever."

"Alright, now, hold hands and place them on Michael's lap, Michael, lean over and look like you are whispering in Jeremy's ear and Jeremy smile."

"Why do rappers need umbrellas, fo'drizzle." I whispered in Jeremy's ear.

That got him laughing.

"Aw, that's a cute one! One more kissing one."

Chloe groaned.

"This is the last picture Chlo."

I kissed Jeremy again.

"And done! I'll send these to you."

"Thanks Brooke!"

"Hey, I gave you this spot." Chloe argued.

"Thank you too Chloe."

Brooke carefully got off the rock and made her way back to the rest of us.

"So you guys up for Burger King?" I asked.

"That's so unhealthy." Chloe complained.

"Chlo, you'll be fine. It's one day."

"Ah, what the heck? Sure, let's go."

The four of us went to Burger King. It was really nice to hang out with Brooke and Chloe. Even with Chloe's snide remarks, she did care for her friends. Brooke had sent Jeremy and I the photos and they looked beautiful.

"Wow, you can paint and are a master photographer? Jeez Brooke."

"I know, I'm pretty great." Brooke said with a laugh.

Jeremy posted a few of the pictures on his Snapchat. I posted them on Instagram.

The Boyf-Riends are going to prom<3

P.C: @brookie.cookie & @chloevday

It was nice to see the responses from my friends.

Chaoticgoranski: Gay! (But also congrats)

ChrisCanigula: Aww!! These are adorable<3

Itsjakeyd: Wow, @Chaoticgoranski and I didn't get nice pictures like these @brookie.cookie & @chloevday

brookie.cookie: You never asked

Itsjakeyd: @brookie.cookie you will do our photos?

chloevday: its $12 per photo

Brookie.cookie: but you get the free friends & family discount

QueenJenna: 1. Those pictures are amazing 2. These two are the only couple I support 3. Brooke would be a horrible business owner

Chaoticgoranski: @QueenJenna RUDE!!

Heereishere: <3 I love youuuu

chloevday: @Heereishere keep the romance off my tl thanks

Heereishere: @chloevday No:)

YellowMellow: I love you too @Heereishere

When I got home after dropping off Jeremy, I texted Jenna. She answered pretty quickly.

Carl Azuz

What's up Mell?

To Carl Azuz

What's up with Dustin

Carl Azuz

Wow really getting into it there

Who told you?

To Carl Azuz

Doesn't matter, now spill

Carl Azuz

He was just being a prick Michael

To Carl Azuz

Want me to do something?

Carl Azuz

No Michael, I already had Rich and Jake threaten him

To Carl Azuz

You told them instead of telling? I thought we were best friends

Carl Azuz

It's not that big of a deal

And it's not like I'm your best friend, that's reserved for Jeremy

To Carl Azuz

Jeremy and I have been best friends for almost 13 years, what did you expect me to say?

Ok, I will admit that wasn't the best thing to say at this moment.

Carl Azuz

Right

whatever

I'm going to bed, goodnight

Shit. I messed up bad.

To Carl Azuz

I'm sorry Jenna, I didn't mean to be an asshole. I just wanted to help

And you are one of my best friends and I hate that I made it sound like you weren't a priority to me. Yes, Jeremy and I have been best friends forever but that doesn't mean I don't care about you

She didn't respond. I felt horrible. I shouldn't've said what I did. Hopefully she could forgive me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've written this promposal in a notebook I randomly had so I had to search for it just for this chapter.


	8. Prom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ITS PROM TIME! This is written by someone who's never been to prom. Underage drinking bc Rich doesn't care about rules.

In the end, Jenna did forgive me. We both apologized, she apologized for not telling me and I apologized for being a dick about it. I was glad Jenna forgave me because I didn't know what I would do without her. It was prom night and I was super excited. Apparently, there was a contest of who had the best promposal between our friend group. I didn't even know about it until Brooke made the mini poll. She already counted her promposal with Chloe out of the running, making it between Mine and Rich's. According to Jake, he was the one to ask Rich to prom first but Rich rejected him because he wanted to do it. It was a nice friendly competition, meaning Rich was pissed when he lost the contest by one vote. Rich asked Jake to prom in an.... Unusual way. 

He went to Jake's aunt's house, where Jake was currently living and set up everything while he was at practice. Jake's aunt was like Rich and Jake's number one supporter. So anyway, Rich had setup a bunch of candles and arranged them into the word 'prom?' I don't know why Rich had so many candles but at this point, you learn to not question Rich. He waited until it got dark and lit all the candles and then called Jake to the window. It was very unusual but it was very Rich. Jenna was gonna come over in a few minutes in order to help me get ready. I had my suit, well I had the blazer for the suit. Apparently, my moms have been planning this prom thing way before I did. They got me a custom blazer that they refused to let me see until today. When I saw it with Jenna, it would be my first time seeing it. They said they knew I would love it and knowing their taste, I knew I would.

Carl Azuz

Open up.

I went downstairs and Jenna was standing there. She had a large bag in her hand. Her hair was nicely done but other than that, she was pretty casually dressed.

"You don't have your dress on?" I asked.

"You don't have your suit on." Jenna countered.

"I was waiting for you."

"So was I. I also have to steal your bathroom to do my makeup."

"I'm down with that. Now, let's get going. Want a drink before we start?"

She shrugged.

"Sure, I'm down for anything."

"Even milk?" I teased.

She scrunched up her nose in disgust.

"Imagine liking milk."

"I know right? The only reason I even have milk is because of cereal."

"Cereal is gross too."

My eyes widened in shock.

"Who hates cereal?"

"I do, it's bland."

"You did not just shame just Fruity Pebbles like that."

"I said what I said, now let me in."

I rolled my eyes but let her in the house.

"I'll go get you some juice, go and put your stuff down in my room, I'll be up there in a minute."

She nodded and made her way up to my room. I grabbed the pineapple juice out of the fridge and poured into the two glasses I grabbed out of the cabinet. I put the juice back in the fridge, grabbed the cups and went up stairs. When I got into my room, Jenna was sitting there on her phone.

"I brought you some juice." I said and handed her the cup.

"Thanks Mell." She said as she grabbed the cup.

She took a sip and then set it on the desk.

"Now, I wanna see this special blazer!" Jenna exclaimed.

I went to my moms' room and knocked on the door.

"Come in!"

I slowly opened the door and ma was reading a book while nanay was watching tv.

"You here for your blazer?" Ma asked.

"Yeah, Jenna just got here so..."

Nanay got up and went to her closet.

"I can't believe my baby has a date to prom." Nanay said excitedly.

"I can't believe he's even going to prom. I always thought that he and Jeremy would get high in the basement and play video games on prom night instead of actually going."

The three of us laughed.

"That's exactly what I thought too ma."

Nanay handed me a bag.

"Alright, here you go." Nanay said with a smile.

"Thanks. This is gonna be the best prom!"

"I like seeing you all excited."

I smiled and then left the room.

"Show me the blazer Mell!" Jenna exclaimed.

I took the blaer out of the bag and it was....

"Holy shit it looks awesome!" I said happily.

It was a black blazer with a splattered paint pattern that littered the fabric. There were also some small colorful triangles scattered around. Also on it, was a tiny pac man.

"It's very you." Jenna commented.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No, but no one could pull it off except you."

"Hold your horses Jenna..." I started but Jenna interrupted me.

"Who says hold your horses?"

"I do, anyway, we don't know if I pull it off yet."

"Please, that thing was literally made for you."

"Yeah, it was."

"Now go put it on!" Jenna urged.

"What do I wear under it?" I asked.

Jenna said nothing. She just stood up and went to my closet. She started digging around.

"Geez Mell, don't you have anything plain? What's with you and graphic tees?"

"Graphic tees are iconic Jenna!"

She looked at me.

"Right." She deadpanned.

She went back to her closet shirt.

"All you have is plain white, plain blue and plain red. You are the walking embodiment of the American flag." Jenna said with a sigh.

"Not my fault I'm not bland."

"Unlike your cereal."

"Cereal is amazing, screw you Jenna!"

She took out the three plain shirts and laid them on my bed.

"I'm already ruling out the blue. So between the white and red, the logical option is the white..."

"Alright." I said and went to reach for the white but Jenna slapped my hand away.

"I wasn't done. The white is the logical option but the perfect option for you is the red. It suits you way more."

I was glad I had Jenna here to help me. She knew what looked good but also knew what suited me the best.

"What should I do for pants miss?"

"Do I need to do everything for you?"

She went to my dresser and picked out black dress pants and handed them to me.

"Now go get dressed."

I walked into my bathroom and changed. I looked in the mirror and I loved it. The blazer and red shirt combo just felt super...me.

"Are you dead in there?" Jenna asked.

"No, I'll be out in a second."

I took one last look in the mirror before nodding. I opened the door and was met with Jenna cheering. I realized she was recording on her phone.

"Looking good Mell!"

I walked a bit closer to the camera and winked.

"I know." I said confidently.

She put her phone down.

"I'll post it later for prom recaps."

I nodded.

"Let me see your dress!" I exclaimed, playfully hitting her arm.

"Alright, alright, chill." She said and got up.

She grabbed the bag she carried in and went into the bathroom. The group was planning to meet at the park for a group prom photo shoot. Brooke's older sister was a professional photographer and was going to do our prom pictures for free. It was nice to have a group to go to prom with. Then I remembered that I actually had a date to go to prom with. Never in a million years did I think that was gonna happen. I wonder how different things would be if Jeremy and Chritine never broke up. If that double would've gone just a bit differently, everything now could've been different. Would I be going with Rich to prom? I highly doubted it considering he really liked Jake but the double date going the way it did really was the real setting off action here. What made it feel worse for me is that if they didn't break up, Jeremy and Christine would be going to prom together. I realized that over the course of our relationship, I was a pretty jealous person. I wasn't insane like he couldn't talk to any of his friends crazy but little things did bother me. Ever since the SQUIP incident ended, Jeremy did gain a bit of confidence. Sure he still had a lot of insecurities but landing Chrisitine did help his self esteem, at least a little. 

Anyway, some girls would notice his confidence and would flirt with him. I don't think he ever really noticed but I did. Was jealousy the most attractive trait? No, I knew that it was something to work on but after everything that happened with Jeremy during the SQUIP incident, my only fear was losing him again. I knew that if Jeremy and Christine went to prom together, I would probably lose it. Not many people had known I liked Jeremy for sure until the night and I split. People had inferred it, but the only ones to know for sure were Mr. Heere, my moms and Jenna. The day I told Jenna was completely an accident. She came up to me and started talking to me and Jenna was one for worming your secrets out of you. So within 5 minutes, I had told her. I begged her not to tell absolutely anyone. She knew about me dating Rich and asked me if I was just using him. Well, it's true that I was trying to get over Jeremy with Rich but I did actually somewhat like Rich. He was a fun guy to hang out with and knew how you make you smile. Rich was the second best person I dated, which that rating is kinda easy to do considering I've only dated two people. Actually, no that wasn't completely true. I had a girlfriend named Nicole in the 7th grade. Granted that lasted like 3 days. Nicole dated me because it was "super cool" to date an older guy. Middle school was weird. Nicole thought I was damaging her "good reputation" by being weird so she dumped me. I didn't feel hurt at all, Jeremy and I still joke about it to this day. I sometimes see Nicole wandering the halls. I didn't see her very often considering she was a sophomore but she was a lot nicer now. She ran into me one day and apologized and realized who I was. She apologized for being rude to me in middle school. I laughed and told her it wasn't a big deal. I haven't spoken to her since but I hoped things were going well for her.

"I'm ready! Don't faint over my beauty!" Jenna called.

"I'll try not to!" I called back with a chuckle.

Jenna opened the door and she looked stunning. She was wearing a light gray dress that had gems and sparkles on the chest. The dress also had a plunging neckline. The dress was long and flowy and had a long slit in it. Her hair, as I mentioned before, had already been done. It was down and had a few braids that went from the front to the back. It was simple but it looked nice.

"Wow, if I was straight, I would ask you out in a heartbeat. You look amazing!"

"Why thank you, if you were straight and weren't dating someone, I would totally say yes. You also look amazing."

I smiled. Jenna really was an amazing friend.

"I gotta do my makeup, wanna come and help me?"

"How am I gonna help you?" I asked.

"I don't know, just keep me company I guess."

I shrugged and grabbed my desk chair and pushed it into the bathroom for Jenna to sit.

"Thanks Michael. It's nice I get to get ready with you before prom. I know you are gonna be hanging with your boyfriend during it so..."

"Hey Jenna, if you wanna hang with the two of us, it's totally ok. We wouldn't just ditch you."

Jenna started getting out her makeup stuff.

"I know you wouldn't but I don't wanna be the awkward third wheel. I'll probably chill with Christine."

Jenna started doing her makeup and I played some music on her phone so I could scroll through mine.

Goin' Viral Deserved Better

Lispy Bi

ITS PROM NIGHT BITCHES

Player Two<3

We are aware Rich

Lispy Bi

You don't seem very excited for someone who has a date

Theatre Geek

He's sweating bullets over here, he's nervcited

Mythic Bitch

Nervcited?

Player Two<3

Shduhuauhsiiush CHRIS!!! I was working a cool guy persona

Sbbarro Bro

Bold to assume you ever had a cool guy persona

Player Two<3

WOW!! Mikey defend me

To Goin' Viral Deserved Better

Opps sorry I can't my hands are full

Lispy Bi

GET REKT NERD

Mythic Bitch

Who says get rekt anymore?

Lispy Bi

I doooo

Player Two<3

Ok whenever anyone says the words "I do" I think of the Lamby Lamby dance from Gravity falls

Sbbarro Bro

Mikey, you really chose that? Out of all the guys in the world, you settle for that?

Theatre Geek

OMG I REMEMBER THAT! DIPPER WAS ADORABLE! I had a major crush on him.

To Goin Viral Deserved Better

HAHHAH Christine had a crush on a cartoon

Player Two<3

You were literally in love with a cartoon bear Micah

Sbbarro Bro

Wtf is wrong with you Mikey

To Goin' Viral Deserved Better

BETRAYAL

I WAS LIKE 5

Player Two<3

You were 7

Lispy Bi

The fuk is wrong with u?

I dated a guy who was into beastiality, I feel dirty

To Goin' Viral Deserved Better

No I was nOt!

Theatre Geek

Wait which bear was it?

Sbbarro Bro

The real fucked up one is Jeremy, he knew Michael was into that AND STILL chose to date him

Lispy Bi

OMG

GROSS

To Goin' Viral Deserved Better

WELL WELL WELL

How the tables have turned

Player Two<3

Akkshssjbdkybek shut up

Theatre Geek

Is everyone just gonna ignore my question? :(

Player Two<3

I just told you?? We are in the same room

Theatre Geek

Well yeah but for the others

Player Two<3

Oh right, Special Agent Oso

Sbarro Bro

Yo, you mean that yellow bear?

Player Two<3

Yea

Lispy Bi

If ur gonna have a crush on a bear, at least make it a cute one

Sbarro Bro

I---

Playter Two<3

Did someone get Rich drunk already?

Sbarro Bro

Ummm.. well you see

He's not like super drunk, just a tad

Theatre Geek

He's gonna get in trouble Jake!

Sbarro Bro

It's alright Chris, I can handle him.

Theatre Geek

Alright, I'll trust you<3 Just be careful

Sbarro Bro

I will. I'm not gonna drink, being the designated driver and all

But who's coming to the after party?

Player Two<3

What after party?

Sbarro Bro

Oh Jeremy

Sweet innocent Jeremy

I'm having a huge party after prom

"Did you know about Jake's party?" I asked Jenna.

She took her hand away from her face.

"Who didn't know? Are you going?"

"I don't know, you know what happened at the last party."

"That's not gonna happen again Michael. None of us are gonna leave you alone." Jenna assured.

Player Two<3

What about your aunt?

Sbarro Bro

She's on some business trip, she won't be back until Wednesday :)

So are you coming?

Mythic Bitch

Brooke and I are

Theatre Geek

I'll go

But no drinking for me!

Lispy Bi

Mw to

Sbarro Bro

Jenna already told me she was going

So Jeremy? Michael?

Player Two<3

Micah?

To Goin' Viral Deserved Better

Ughhh

I'll go if you go

Player Two<3

Count us in

Theatre Geek

Is no one concerned about how Rich is typing?

Sbarro Bro

Not really, he's barely even drunk, he just types weird sometimes

Pinkberry Girl

I can verify that statement

Lispy Bi

Are u hoes almost ready?

Pinkberry Girl

Why do we have to be hoes?

Mythic Bitch

Literally none of us are hoes

Lispy Bi

Shhhhhh

Doesn't matter

"How do I look?" Jenna asked.

I looked up at her. Her makeup was done super nicely. Silver and black eyeshadow covered her eyelids.

"You look amazing Jenna. Rich asked if we were ready, and also called us hoes so..."  
Jenna rolled her eyes.

"Almost, you gotta do something with your hair Mikey."

"What's wrong with my hair?"

"It's fine but needs a bit of fixing."

"Where do you keep your headbands?"

"In my room, why?"

"Can I see them?"

I nodded and led her out of the bathroom. I led her to a small bin I had laying on my dresser. She went through and pulled out a headband.

"I've never seen you wear this one before."

It was a plain blacky silky headband.

"Oh yeah, I haven't worn it in years."

"Well, I guess you broke that today, go put it on."

I nodded and went to my mirror. I put in on and smoothed out my hair. I turned back to Jenna and she had a huge grin on her face.

"I think we are prom ready."

I smiled.

"I'm guessing those roses are for your prince charming." Jenna said with a smirk.

"Well obviously, it's been a pain to keep them alive. I kinda kill any flower instantly so I'm surprised they lived." I said as I grabbed the roses from the vase.

"They are nice. Wow, I can't believe you have a date to prom."

"Hey!" I exclaimed and slapped her shoulder,

"I never thought you would have the guts to tell Jeremy you liked him and I didn't think you and Rich would last that long."

"Didn't you say that Rich and I were your otp?"

"I only said that because you are my friend and I didn't want you to feel bad."

"But you knew I liked Jeremy."

"I did, and I shipped you and Jeremy more."

I smiled.

"Let's get this show on the road!" I exclaimed.

"Only dads say that."

"Well I gotta make up for the fact I don't have a dad." I said with an overdramatic bow.

Jenna rolled her eyes but she smiled.

"Shut up, let's go get the dorks."

I nodded and Jenna and I walked out of my room. We walked down the stairs.

"Ma! Nanay! I'm heading out!" I called.

"Not yet! I wanna take pictures!" Nanay called out from the living room.

"But we are gonna take pictures at the park."

"Well yeah, but I want pictures of you now."

I sighed.

"Alright."

My mom took pictures, a few of Jenna and I together and a lot of just me.

"You both look amazing." Ma said with a smile.

"Thanks Ma."

"Thanks Mrs.Mell."

"Of course."

"Oh by the way Ma, I'm going to a party at Jake's afterwards. You're ok with that right?"

Both of my moms just looked at me.

"You are ok with that, right?"

"Oh yeah, no, we are, I just never expected to hear you would be going to a party."

"Yeah, just be careful, if you drink, don't even think about driving. If you want to come home, just call one of us and we'll come and get you."

"Shouldn't you tell me not to drink?"

"Well yeah, we don't want you to, but we know that it's probably gonna happen so we just want to lay down the rules if it does happen."

"Will I be in trouble if I do?" I asked, kinda worried about what they were gonna say.

"I don't like drinking, nor do I think teens should..." Nanay started.

"But?"

"But, I know this isn't a common occurrence for you. As long as you are responsible, I'll allow it for tonight."

I smiled.

"Thanks Nanay, thanks Ma!" I said and pulled them into a hug.

"Of course baby, have fun."

I released them from the hug.

"I will, I think we should get going."

I put on my white and black sneakers (Jenna didn't even argue with that) and went to grab my keys from the rack by the door.

"Before you go, I have one more thing to say."

I turned back to face my moms.

"Actually, you say it." Nanay said to ma.

"Why do I gotta say it?"

"Just do it."

Ma rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Fine. We just wanted to say that we want you and Jeremy to be careful, we know what happens on prom night..."

My face exploded red.

"Bye guys, love you, gotta go." I said quickly.

I grabbed Jenna's arm, grabbed my keys and pulled Jenna outside my house. Jenna was cackling.

"Shut up." I mumbled.

Jenna continued to laugh as she got in her car. I got into my car and drove off to Jeremy's. Christine was gonna ride with Jenna in order to leave Jeremy and I alone. Soon, I pulled into Jeremy's driveway. I decided I would get out of the car and go to the door. Jenna decided to stay in her car. I made my way up the porch stairs. Instead of walking in like I normally do, I rang the doorbell. Mr. Heere was the one who came to the door.

"Hey Michael, wow, your suit really SUITS you." Mr. Heere said with a laugh.

I laughed at his corny joke.

"Jeremy! Christine! Michael is here!" Mr. Heer called.

"Hold on!" I heard Jeremy call.

"Come on in Michael." Mr. Heere told me.

I nodded and walked into the house. I saw Christine standing there.

"Hey Mikey, Jeremy is getting ready still. He's been a nervous wreck this whole time. You look amazing by the way, where did you get your blazer? It's like super you!"

"Thanks Chris, my moms got it for me. You look amazing too."

Christine was wearing a short light pink off the shoulder dress. Flowers were all over the chest piece and the small sleeves were sheer. The skirt of her dress was poofy. Her hair was similar to Jenna's and her makeup was a glittery silver with a bit of white. Her shoes were silver glitter flats. The whole look gave off a princess vibe, which was definitely Christine.

"Thanks Mikey." Christine said with a smile.

"Of course, why is Jeremy so nervous?"

"It's Jeremy we are talking about here." She said with a chuckle.

"Alright! I'm coming!" Jeremy called.

I got my phone out to record my amazing boyfriend coming down the stairs on prom night, kinda like a soccer mom would. Now I could say Jeremy walked down the stairs and looked stunning. Well, that's not 100% true. He looked handsome as ever, but walked down the stairs, isn't the exact words I'd use. Remember when I mentioned Jeremy was really clumsy? Well as he was walking down the stairs, he stumbled and fell down them.

"Oh my god Jeremy!" Christine shrieked and rushed to Jeremy's aid.

I looked at Mr. Heere and he was completely stunned. I stopped my video. Neither of us said anything, we just went to Jeremy's side.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Jeremy said and stood up, holding his back.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"I'm...." Jeremy started but then looked at me.

"You're?"

"I.. um.. I don't remember what I was gonna say. You look..." He opened his mouth like he was gonna say something but he didn't.

"Did you hit your head or something?" Mr. Heere asked.

"No, I didn't. I'm fine, really." Jeremy assured us.

"Alright, well, come on, let me get a few pictures."

I finally got a good look at Jeremy after all the panic. He looked absolutely eye-catching. He was wearing a black button up shirt and a red blazer. He topped that off with a navy blue tie. He was wearing black dress pants and brown dress shoes. Mr. Heere took quite a few pictures. Most of them came out pretty nice and the others, well would've been nice if Mr. Heere didn't put his finger over the camera.

"Jenna is outside for you Christine."

"Oh, alright. I'll head out then. I'll see you guys at the park." Christine said and then she left.

"Oh, right , these are for you." I said and handed him the flowers.

Jeremy smiled and I saw a tad blush on his face. I counted that as a win for the night.

"Thank you Micah."

"Of course Jere."

"My boys are growing up." Mr. Heere said, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye.

Jeremy and I laughed.

"We should probably be heading out, I'll see you later dad." Jeremy said.

"I'll see you boys later."

Jeremy and I started to walk to the front door but I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and looked at Mr. Heere.

"Please, take good care of him."

"I promise on everything I will." I said with a small smile.

He smiled back and took his hand off of my shoulder.

Jeremy and I made our way to my car. I opened the passenger door for him.

"Such a gentleman." Jeremy said with a laugh.

Jeremy's dorky laugh could literally kill me with how adorable it was. I made my way to the driver side and made our way to the park.

"I know I kinda tripped up earlier..." Jeremy started and I couldn't help but laugh.

Jeremy looked at me in utter confusion before laughing with me.

"That's not what I meant asshole." Jeremy said and then slapped my arm.

"No distracting the driver."

"Whatever. Back to what I was saying, you look... I don't know any words that will be fitting."

"Aww Jere, you are such a flatterer. Napakaguwapo mo."

I saw Jeremy glance at me.

"What?"

"Nothing Jere."

"Wait no, what does that mean?"

"It means you're so handsome."

I looked over at Jeremy and he blushed.

"Why couldn't you just say that in English you dweeb?" He asked.

"It felt more meaningful that way."

"You really are a dork."

"I thought I was a dweeb."

"You are both, you are... you are a dorweeb."

I laughed.

"A dorweeb hu?"

"Shut up, I'm nervous."

"Why are you nervous?"

"Well, it's not like people don't know we are dating or anything because they are but we haven't really... um showcased it too much in public and I'm just nervous of what everyone is gonna think, you know?"

"Yeah, I get it Jere, but everything is gonna be ok. We have our friends who are gonna be there. You think they would let anyone do anything? Christine is super nice and all but she heard someone say something bad, she will rip them apart."

"Yeah, you're right, I'm sorry for worrying."

"Jere, you don't need to apologize. You did nothing wrong."

We then got to the park. Everyone else was already there. Jeremy and I stepped out of the car.

"Took you two long enough!" Rich exclaimed as he came up to us.

"Aren't you gonna wear your suit in the picture?" Jeremy asked Rich.

"Suits are for losers, this is what's in style." Rich said motioning at himself.

Rich was wearing a dark navy blue short sleeved button up. There were two zipper pockets on the chest. He was wearing matching colored shorts. He was wearing red and white socks and black sneakers.

"Hey, I think my boyfriend looks wonderful with what he's wearing." Jake said as he wrapped his arm around Rich's waist and pulled him into a side hug. Rich laid his head on Jake's shoulder. Jake was wearing a red and black blazer with a white button up underneath. He had a black bow tie and black pants. His shoes and the cummerbund wrapped around his waist was also black.

"Looking nice Jakey-D." I told Jake with a wink.

Jake loosed his grip on Rich and stepped toward me.

"Why thank you. Looking really good yourself Mikey."

Jake then flashed one of his charming smiles. Rich pulled Jake's arm. Jake looked back and smirked.

"What's wrong Rich?"

"Don't do that." Rich said with a pout.

"Do what?" Jake asked innocently.

"Don't flirt with him." Rich said as he gestured to me.

Jake pulled Rich into a hug and kissed the top of his head.

"I won't dream of it..." Jake said to Rich then turned his head to look at me.

"He gets like this when he drinks."

I slowly nodded.

"We have a whole Montague and Capulet vibe going." Rich said as he motioned to his and Jake's outfits.

"He learned Romeo and Juliet's last name and he doesn't know how to behave." Jenna said.

"Which is he totally messing with Shakespere!" Christine exclaimed.

"Christine sweetheart, simmer it down." Jenna told her as she put a hand on each of Christine's shoulders.

Christine huffed but then smiled.

"The boyf-riends are here!" Brooke exclaimed as she came up to hug us.

"About time." Chloe said with an eye roll.

Brooke had a short navy blue dress on. The top was lacy and sparkly and the sleeves were completely made of lace. The skirt of her dress was poofy, similar to the way Christine's was. Her hair was tied up in a neatly done messy bun. A section of her hair was used to create a tiara braid and another tinier section was left out of it completely. Her eyeshadow was navy blue with silver glitter in the middle. Her heels were silver and strappy.

"Jeez Chlo, you really said fuck you to the dress code." Jake teased.

Chloe rolled her eyes.

"It's called fashion asshole." Chloe sneared.

Her dress had a black off the shoulder top. Her midriff was exposed. The bottom was light purple and it was very long and silky. There was also a slit in it. Her heelys were shiny gold. Hloe's hair was curled and a part of it was twisted to the back. Small white flowers were in her hair. Glittery gold eyeshadow was on the inner part of her eyelid and faded to black as it gor farther.

"Your blazer looks awesome Mikey!" Brooke gushed.

"Yeah, it's hella cool." Jake said in agreement.

Chloe glared at me, her expression was unreadable.

"It's very... unique."

"Your hesitation doesn't make it sound like a compliment." I told her.

"It was supposed to be one. You look nice. Way better than Rich."

"Hey! It's a fashion statement!"

"Alright, alright. Cut it out, the both of you. You look beautiful Chloe and Rich you look smoking hot. Now let's take these pictures civilly." Jake commanded.

Chloe and Rich mumbled but agreed. Another girl walked to the rest of us. She was holding a camera, so I assumed it was Brooke's sister. I didn't even know Brooke had a sister until a few days ago.

"Hi everyone, I'm Regan, Brooke's older sister. I know everyone except you three..." She said pointing at Jeremy, Christine and I.

"I'm Michael and this is Jeremy and Christine." I explained.

"Ah, I've heard about you two... " Regan said pointing at Jeremy and I.

"Brooke says you like retro games."

"Yup, I'm the best." I gloated.

"Yeah right, I'm the best." Jeremy argued.

"These are the boyfriends you were talking about."

Brooke nodded.

"Yup, the iconic boyf-riends"

"Why do you keep saying it like that?" Regan asked.

"Saying it like what?"

"You keep putting a tiny pause between boyf and friends like if you were gonna put a space, put it between the boy and friends."

"It's supposed to be like that." Brooke informed Regan.

"Why?"

"Because I bullied them." Rich said proudly.

Regan looked concerned yet surprised, which was a common reaction when Rich was involved.

"I-- why does that matter in this situation?"

"I'll explain it, so basically Michael and Jeremy have been friends for almost 13 years now and about January or February, somewhere around there, they admitted they liked each other but before that, they were just friends. Rich decided it would be a good idea to put Boyf on Jeremy's bookbag and Riends on Michael's." Jenna elaborated.

"So let me get this straight, your ship name is based on the way you got bullied?" Regan asked slowly.

Everyone else looked at each other.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Just one question, it's for Michael and Jeremy. Why did you become friends with your bully?"

Jeremy and I looked at each other and we both had a look of fright in our eyes.

"Long story." Brooke grimaced.

Regan looked at Brooke and she looked totally done.

"You know what, I don't wanna know."

"It's for the best." Jake claimed.

Everyone nodded in total agreement.

"Was I this weird in highschool?" Regan quiried.

Regan led us to the bridge Chloe had led us to before.

"This bridge really is iconic." Chloe stated.

"It's like the only spot around here to get nice pictures."

"Because New Jersey sucks." Rich declared.

Everyone murmured in agreement.

"Alright, so how do you guys wanna do this? Group and then couple? Couple then group? Doesn't matter to me."

"Let's do a group then couple photos." Brooke advised.

"Alright, Rich, Michael get in the front." Regan instrusted.

"But Michael is like one of the tallest." Brooke pointed out.

"Are you questioning me?"

"Nope, not at all, Michael get down."

"Yeah, get down you dirty rascal!" Christine piped.

"Huh?"

"Don't mind her, it's a musical reference."

"Oh, you're the theatre girl! That makes a lot more sense."

Christine giggled.

"Actually, Jeremy and Jake, you get down too. I'll have the girls standing."

Jeremy and Jake kneeled on the ground.

"Man I hate getting on my knees." Jeremy grumbled.

I looked at Jeremy and started dying of laughter and so did Rich and Jake. Jeremy's face turned bright red.

"Shut up! Not like that!" Jeremy shrilled.

"Oh, so you like to when..." Rich started but Jeremy slapped his hand over his mouth.

"You guys are so immature." Chloe scoffed.

"Wait, what? Why are they immature?" Christine questioned.

It got really quiet. Everyone just looked at Christine.

"What's going on, you guys are acting weird."

"Christine, it's nothing sweetheart. Now let's take some photos."

Christine was still visibly confused but didn't ask about it anymore.

"Alright, nice big smiles guys!"

Regan took a few photos.

"Alright, we can get your couple pictures done."

Regan took Brooke and Chloe's first so Jeremy and I sat on a nearby bench.

"I never thought we'd spend prom like this."

I look at Jeremy and he looks back at me.

"Yeah, neither did I. I thought I was gonna have to watch you and Christine dancing together."

Jeremy smiled but it didn't reach his eyes.

"Hey, I'm sorry, I was just joking and..."

"No, it's not that. I've just been thinking about what Regan said earlier. You know, about why we became friends with our bullies. I mean Christine wasn't one of them but..."

"Oh, umm well, Rich did it because of the SQUIP so I don't really blame him."

"I mean, yeah but it still kinda feels weird now that she brought it up. What if they don't actually want to be friends with us?"

Jeremy looked genuinely scared.

"Jere, they do, of course they do. You are awesome and they now got a chance to see that. Plus, even if not, you still have me. I'm not going anywhere."

"Yeah, I know, thanks Micah, I know this was stupid and all..."

"Weren't you the one who told me that if it makes you upset then it's not stupid?"

"Well yeah but..."

"Look who's being a hypocrite now." I snickered.

Jeremy rolled his eyes but smiled.

"Shut up, that's a different scenario."

"But the point still stands."

"Whatever." Jeremy said and then shoved me lightly.

"Hey! Don't shove me Mr. Heere."

"Aww and why is that Mr. Mell?"

"Because, it's not nice."

"I'm never nice."

"That's a lie but alright."

Jeremy and I kept playfully bickering.

"Should we tell them they are gross or should we just let them figure it out on their own?" Jenna asked Christine loudly enough for us to hear.

"Oh hush, they are cute."

"We can hear you!" I called to them.

"We know!" They both called back.

I kissed Jeremy on the cheek, mostly because I wanted to but I also wanted to tease Jenna. Soon enough, Regan took our picture too. Then Rich gained a "wonderful" idea.

"Guys, pick me up!"

"I wish I could just say this is the alcohol talking but I know it's not." Jeremy sighed.

"Yeah, that's Rich for ya. But I guess I gotta be nice to him or whatever."

I looked at him and laughed.

"You chose him."

"You chose him first." Jake playfully shot back.

"Don't remind me."

So basically, we were forced to hoist up Rich for a picture. Jeremy and I also got a picture of us holding up Christine. She "wanted to feel dramatic." It was a pretty chaotic time but it was a great time. I really did enjoy hanging out with them, even if things did get crazy. Rich had almost fallen in the freezing river, only getting saved by Jake, which he then referred to as 'his knight in red and black armour." Jake honestly looked so done with Rich but you could also see the care he had for him in his eyes. Christine and Jeremy were singing together and tried to get me to join. I opted out of that. Singing in front of other people wasn't exactly my thing. Chloe and Brooke were doing god knows what and Jenna was recording everyone's antics.

"You better not post at Jenna!" Jeremy squeaked.

"Ugh, fine."

Soon enough, we were on our way to prom.

+Tiny Time Skip +

We had to show our school IDS in order to enter the doors that lead to the actual prom. Luckily, I always brought mine so it wasn't a problem for me. The one time Jeremy brough his ID actually came in use. Rich was flipping out because he thought he lost his but in reality, Jake was holding onto it so he wouldn't lose it. Jake really cared about Rich and it was sickeningly sweet. Christine was the responsible one and had hers on deck. Jenna, Brooke and Chloe all kinda forgot they had school IDS until they went through their purses and found them. When we entered the room. It was a huge banquet hall. The lights were off but there were blue lights shining in order for the room to not be completely dark. There was a disco ball that shone in the light.

"Wow, this is really prom." Jeremy said slowly.

"Yeah, this is... Oh my god look at Madeline." Chloe said and pointed.

"Chloe! It's rude to point at people." Brooke told her.

"Whatever, wasn't she just with Brad?"

"Yeah, why?"

"She's making out with Xander over there. And she really went extra with her dress like it's not that deep sis."

Madeline was wearing a purple dress. The skirt of the dress was absolutely huge.

"Why do you hate Madeline so much?" I asked.

Chloe looked at me like I was crazy.

"What's the question?"

"Why do you hate Madeline so much?"

"It's a long story." Brooke explained to us.

"Which we do not discuss Brooke." Chloe urged.

"Sorry." Brooke said quickly.

"I'm getting a drink." Chloe announced and walked away.

Brooke followed after her.

"Man I feel bad for Brooke sometimes, imagine having to deal with Chloe all the time." Rich said suddenly.

Jake looked at Rich.

"Rich, stop being mean to Chloe. Sure she has her attitude but you can't just say things like that."

"Didn't you say she was the worst to date?"

"Look, she's our friend."

"Why are you always defending her? She hates me like half the time so I don't see why she even hangs out with me. If you like her so much, why don't you just go and date her?" Rich hissed and then stormed away.

Jake looked like he just had his heart torn in two. I never really saw Jake upset and I was not a fan. He looked at the rest of us.

"I'll just go..." He said quietly then left.

He didn't even go to chase after Rich, he went in the opposite direction.

Jenna was in shock.

"Well that just happened..."

Christine frowned.

"I really hope they make up. They are made for each other."

"Someone should go talk to Rich, make sure he doesn't get into trouble." Jenna suggested.

"I will." I told her.

Jeremy slightly pouted. I kissed him on the cheek.

"I'll be right back." I assured him.

He nodded and I went to go find Rich. It didn't take very long. All I had to do was search the bathroom to find Rich holding the edges of the sink, looking down. If he wasn't already crying, he was on the verge of it.

"Rich?" I asked softly.

"Go away Michael. I don't wanna talk about it."

"I just wanted to..."

"I don't know why I got so mad." Rich said, completely cutting me off.

"Are you sure you don't wanna talk about it?" I asked, stepping closer to Rich.

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Well, if you wanna talk..."

"It's just, when I was dating you, I wasn't really jealous or whatever. I mean yeah, I had a feeling you liked Jeremy, but like with Jake, I just feel like he's gonna leave me like all the time. Like he's always defending Chloe and they dated before so who's to say they won't date again. He never takes my side on like anything. And I know he's a really charming person or whatever..." At this point, Rich was sobbing.

"But I feel like he's flirting with everyone so he can leave me. He... I'm not good enough for him."

I started rubbing Rich's back.

"I got the SQUIP because I just thought I wanted to be like him but then, I realized I wanted to be with him and everything changed. But being his friend, you hear about all the people he's been with and he stayed good friends with a lot of them. He's gonna leave me Michael."

I tried to think of something to say but I just couldn't. I've never seen Rich like this before. It broke my heart to see him this upset.

"I've felt this way a lot, I just haven't told anyone."

"Rich, why didn't you talk to anyone?"

"I felt like no one cared so why bother?"

"I care, Jeremy cares. So does Brooke, Jenna and Christine. And I know it doesn't seem like it, but Chloe cares."

"She has a real nice way of showing it." Rich huffed.

"Yeah, she's not the most comforting but if you needed her, I know she would be there."

"Yeah right."

"She cares, Rich. And you wanna know who cares the absolute most? Jake. He was absolutely torn when you walked off."

"Jake doesn't care. He didn't even come after me. If he cared, he would've. Plus, he never sees my side of things."

"Did you ever think that maybe he just wants you to see the other side of things? Jake always gives people the benefit of the doubt. And Jake does care, I don't know exactly why he didn't come to get you but he does care."

Rich turned to look at me.

"Things were so much easier when we were together."

I furrowed my eyebrows.

"What do you mean Rich?"

"You wouldn't leave me."

"Jake wouldn't leave you either. He cares about you Rich."

"He flirted with you!"

"What? No he didn't?"

I was super confused but then I remembered what Rich said at the park.

"Rich he wasn't flirting with me, we were just joking around."

"Well how would you feel if Jeremy did that with someone?"

I remember what happened with Jeremy and Brooke. I totally understood where Rich was coming from.

"I wouldn't like it. Have you ever tried talking to Jake?"

"Well, no."

"Then how is he supposed to know he is bothering you? Jake, that's just how he is, you said it yourself."

"I can't tell him Mikey."

"Why not."

He sniffed.

"If I ask him to tone it down, I'm telling him to change himself. I love Jake the way he is. I don't want him to feel like he has to change himself."

"He's not gonna think that Rich. He cares about your feelings. I'm sure Jake wouldn't mind toning it down for you."

"You really think he cares?"

"I don't think he cares, I know he cares."

Rich grabbed some paper towels from the dispenser. He wipes his eyes.

"Do you think he's mad at me?"

I shook my head.

"He's more worried than anything."

"Can you ummm, tell him I wanna talk to him?"

I smiled.

"Yeah, of course."

"Thanks Mikey, you are a great friend. Jeremy is a lucky guy."

"Thanks Rich."

I started to walk out of the bathroom.

"Mikey?" Rich called.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"I'm sorry I kinda ruined your prom."

"You didn't ruin anything Rich. I'll go get Jake."

Rich nodded and I left the bathroom. I went back into the main room. A random song I didn't know was playing. I went into the crowd to see if I could find Jake. I looked around but couldn't find him anywhere. I looked near the punch table and saw him talking to Jenna. I slowly made my way up to them, hearing a bit of their conversation.

"I don't know what I did wrong. I just felt bad that he was dissing Chloe but I didn't mean to hurt him."

"I know you didn't Jake."

"Hey Jake?" I asked, breaking their conversation.

"Yeah? What's up man?"  
"Rich..."

"What about him? Is he ok? Jenna said you went to talk to him, where is he? Is he really mad at me? Is he..."

I cut him off.

"Jake, he's doing fine, not great but fine. He wants you to talk to him, it's important alright? He's in the bathroom."

"Oh my god Michael you are the best, thank you so much." Jake said happily and pulled me into a hug.

I patted him on the back awkwardly.

"Of course."

Jake quickly released me and rushed away.

"I hope things are gonna work out." Jenna commented, glaring off in the direction Jake went.

"Something tells me they are gonna be fine, where's Jeremy?"

"He and Chrisitine are on the dance floor. I thought Jeremy could dance, what the hell is he doing?" Jenna asked glancing in the distance.

I looked at where Jenna was looking and saw Jeremy. He was kinda just flinging his arms around and randomly shuffling.

"He's not great without instruction." I said slowly.

"Go instruct the boy then. Jesus, he's not only embarrassing himself but the rest of us too."

I laughed at Jenna's comment. I made my way to the dance floor.

"Well well well,I saw your dance moves from across the room." I told Jere.

"Really? Pretty sweet huh?" Jeremy said with a smile.

"Absolutely not. I came over here to stop you from embarrassing me."

Christine giggled and Jeremy reacted in mock offense.

"Wow, my own boyfriend. Rude!"

I rolled my eyes.

"I'm gonna get a drink." Christine said and then scurried off.

"I don't know like any of the music that's playing." Jeremy shouted over the music.

"Neither do I, but we can just bop to the beat."

Jeremy snorted.

"You did not just say that."

"Oh, I said it and I said it proud."

I started dancing to the beat.

"You told me you didn't know how to dance."

"I don't?"

"You are dancing pretty well to me."

"Really? I didn't think so."

"Well I do, you should dance more often."

"Maybe I will."

Jeremy and I continued to dance to the upbeat music. Even if we knew like none of the songs, it was really fun. Most of prom was kinda a blur. It was just filled with loud music and people screaming to the lyrics. I only knew like 2 songs and that's only because they were songs that were on the radio all the time. I was waiting for those certain songs with certain instructions, like cha cha slide or something. Those were the best kinds of songs at dances. I remember mini Jeremy (8th grade) trying to ask Christine to dance with him. It was super funny because there was another girl wearing the same dress as Chrisitine and looked just like her from the back. He went up behind her and asked her to dance. She turned around and it wasn't Christine. She agreed to dance with him and Jeremy stood there in total shock. I was dying of laughter in the background. Jeremy made sure to flip me off. I don't know what happened to that girl he was dancing with but I thank her for making my night great. I also happened to get in the middle of a dance circle at that dance. No one knew who I was but it was still fun granted.

"I'm gonna go get us drinks alright?"

Jeremy nodded and I walked to the punch table. Jenna was still standing there.

"Hey Jenna, why are you still over here? Shouldn't you be dancing?" I asked as I grabbed two cups of punch.

One of Jenna's eyebrows raised.

"You think I dance? Yeah right."

"Why not?"

"Not my thing Mell."

"Why don't you come dance with Jeremy and I?"

"What do you not understand by not my thing?"

"Oh come on. Are you really gonna stand here all night?"

"I'm watching the drama go down Mell. Apparently, Katie's with Xander and she's hella pissed at Madeline. Might be a fight and I gotta be on deck."

"Oh come on, just a few songs."

"No Mell."

"I get it, you're scared."

Jenna scoffed.

"I know what you are doing Michael. I'm not dancing."

The song changed to a familiar one. It was Shut Up and Dance With Me. I started randomly dancing around her.

"What the hell are you doing?"  
"Come on, this is supposed to be a dance."

"If I go with you and dance, will you leave me alone?"

"Mayhaps."

Jenna rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Alright, let's go."

I cheered a bit and led Jenna onto the dance floor.

"Hey Jere." I said and handed him the cup.

"Hey babe. Thanks." He said as he held up the cup.

"Of course. I brought Jenna to come dance with us."

"I can see that, hey Jenna, how does it feel to be dancing with the two coolest guys at prom?"

"I wouldn't know."

Turns out, Jenna was a great dancer. She danced with us a lot longer than I thought she would. She would record things going on every so often. Soon, there was the principal that stepped on the small podium next to where the DJ was set up. The music died down.

"Good evening everyone, I hope everyone is enjoying their time here. This is not only a big moment for our seniors, but for our juniors as well. Many things have happened over the course of this year and it's changed all of you. I'm glad to see an overall spread of kindness after all that's happened and..."

"Get on with it!" One of the students yelled.

Our principal looked really mad at the student but continued.

"Anyway, it's time to announce our prom king and queen."

Cheers were heard throughout the crowd.

"Alright, your prom king is.... Jacob Dillinger!"

I completely forgot Jake's real name wasn't Jake. More cheering happened. Jake walked up to the podium and took his crown.

"And your prom queen is... Miss Chloe Valentine!"

The clapping continued. Chloe was smiling as she made her way to the podium. She grabbed the microphone to the dismay of the principal.

"Suck it Madeline!" Chloe said into the mic.

Laughing filled the room. The principal took the mic away from her.

"Now, for the king and queen dance."

The applause came back. Jake looked at Rich who was now standing near us. He went over to the DJ and started talking to him. The DJ looked confused but then nodded. Chloe looked at Jake in utter confusion and he held his hand out to stop her from saying anything. She just followed him to the floor. Instead of your classic slow song, a more upbeat one played. Chloe was completely confused but went along with it. I glanced over at Rich and he was smiling.  
"You were right, he does care." Rich said to me.

"I know, I'm glad everything is good between you two."

"Me too."

After Chloe and Jake danced, they both went back to their respective dates. They played a slow song next. I assumed it was the one Chloe and Jake were supposed to dance to. When I saw Rich and Jake dancing together it made me really happy. I hated seeing either of them upset. Even if Jake was better at hiding it than Rich, you could just see the pain before. Jeremy and I danced and it felt amazing. It felt like it was only us.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <3  
> Also I based Jenna's cereal hating on me bc I hate cereal. Also I'm sorry I made Rich suffer for a bit :(


	9. Afterparty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Are prom after parties like actually a thing? Also it gets a little steamy but nothing too bad. Also talks about what happened with Chloe during the Halloween party. Underage drinking and Implied Sexual content.

I was nervous now that we were going to the party. This party gave me a weird feeling. It was another party hosted by Jake, and the last one was less than ideal.

"We don't have to go if you don't want to."  
"No, I... I wanna go."

"Are you sure? You seem upset babe."

"What? No, I'm fine Jere. Let's just go in."

"Alright." Jeremy said slowly.

Jeremy and I stepped out of my car. You could already hear the music. How Jake got the party going so fast was a mystery to me but Jake was the master of parties. We walked in and it was very similar to the last party. I assumed no one was drunk yet, but that feeling quickly died when I saw Rich. He was way drunker than he was before.

"Hey guys, nice to see you." Rich slurred.

"How are you drunk already?"

"It's the party man!"

"Rich? Who are you... oh hey guys." Jake said, appearing next to Rich.

"Hey Jake."

"There's drinks in the kitchen, help yourself. Don't worry, you guys can stay here so don't sweat anything alright?"

"Alright, thanks."

Jeremy grabbed my hand and led me to the kitchen.

"You need a drink Micah, it'll make you feel better."

I nodded and slowly got a bottle of something and poured it into a red solo cup. I pushed away the memories from before as I took a sip. I've never tried much alcohol before. I had accidentally drank some of my mom's drink once before and it was absolutely disgusting. I hated the taste of alcohol. At least I wouldn't be getting drunk tonight. I would just finish this cup and that would be all. By the way Jeremy was downing the alcohol, it was clear I would have to babysit him. The amount of people there was getting to me.

"Don't worry babe, it's gonna be ok." Jere assured me.

I sure hoped he was right. We soon saw Brooke and Chloe. Jeremy pulled me over to them.

"Oh hey boys." Brooke chirped.

"I can see Jeremy's already hit the alcohol."

"Yeah, he has. Guess I'm the babysitter tonight."

"Hey guys" Christine suddenly chimed in.

"Oh hey Chris, nice to see ya."

"Nice to see you guys too!"

We continued to talk for a while. Soon enough, each of them went to go talk to more people at the party. Jeremy got more and more drunk.

"I feel tired." Jeremy whined.

"You had too much to drink baby, come on. I'm gonna find Jake and ask him where you can lay down."

Jeremy nodded but he started to sway. I had to help him to walk. I helped him around the house in order to find anyone who knew where Jake was. We found Jenna, she was talking so some girl I didn't recognize.

"Oh hold up Lydia. What's up... whoa did Jeremy get hit by a truck?"

"No, he's just a little drunk."

"A little?"

"Whatever. Do you know where Jake is?"

Jenna snickered.

"Trust me, you don't wanna see Jake right now."

"Why not?"

"He's with Rich."

My eyebrows furrowed.

"He's always with Rich."

"No, I mean he's with Rich, in his bedroom."

My eyes widened. Jenna chuckled.

"What did you need Jake for?"

"I'm tired." Jere slurred.

"Ah, I see. Follow me, I'll lead you to the guest room."

Jenna led us upstairs and to a room.

"Here you guys go."

"Thanks Jenna."

She nodded and then shut the door.

I pulled Jeremy to the bed. I took off our blazers and folded them. I put them on the bedside table next to the bed. Jeremy took off his tie and threw it somewhere. I went and put it on top of our blazers. I had Jeremy lay down and I laid down next to him.

"Look at me Micah."

I turned to look at him and he pulled me into a kiss. I kissed him back. He pulled me closer to him. This kiss felt a lot different from our other kisses. This one, I didn't know how to describe it. All I know is that we've never kissed like that before. We've made out before, that wasn't what was different, but Jeremy was taking control, which was new. His lips were soft. I felt his tongue start to lick my lips. I parted my lips and let his tongue slip inside. My heart was pounding. I could smell Jeremy's cologne and I held his hand on my cheek. Jeremy pulled away and smiled. Jeremy pushed me so that I was laying flat on the bed and straddled me. He leaned down and started kissing me in the way he had before. After a bit of that, he started to move down and started kissing my neck. The kisses got harder and harder. I couldn't help the small noises that came out of my mouth.

"Jere..." I whined.

I felt a warm hand start to go up my shirt and another start reaching at my pants. And I panicked. I pushed Jeremy off of me.

"Micah? I'm sorry, did I go too far?"

"No... bathroom." Was all I said before I bolted out of the room.

I quietly found the bathroom and slammed the door. I slid down against the door and put my head in my hands.

"Hey, you ok there?" A random voice asked.

I felt my heart leave my chest. I looked up. The person who spoke pulled the curtain of the shower away. It was some girl I've never seen before sitting in the bathtub.

"Hey, I've seen you around. You're one of the popular kids." The girl said.

"I... um, popular?" I squeaked.

"Yeah, you hang out with Chloe and Jake and them right?"

"Yeah."

"Then you are popular. Michael right?"

I nodded.

"I'm Julia. I'm in your US History class."

"Oh, I've never..."

"Seen me before? Yeah, I'm kinda easy to miss."

I felt bad that I didn't notice her before.

"It's alright. Are you good, you look kinda fucked up..." Her eyes squinted at me.

"And you got a little something on your neck."

My hand flew quickly to cover up my neck. She giggled.

"No point trying to hide it now. I didn't know you had a girlfriend."

"I don't, I have a boyfriend."

"Oh, I didn't know. You and Jenna Rolan..."

"Me and Jenna? No way, she's my friend, and I'm very much into guys."

"Ah, I see. I'm very much into girls.... So what's the problem?"

"I... umm."

"I know I'm just some random girl chilling in the bathtub at a party. Why would you talk to me?"

"I... I know what it feels like. To have no one see you and also how it feels to hide in the bathroom at a party."

"You do?"

"Yeah, remember the Halloween party?"

"Oh, I didn;t go to that. Luckily, I heard the house burned down."

"Yeah, it did. My best friend left me. Called me a loser and everything."

"Wow, he's an asshole."

"No, it's not that, he just, had some issues going on."

"Doesn't make him not an asshole. He's just an asshole with issues."

"He's better now."

"Alright, I'll take your word for it."

"But um, so my boyfriend, he's drunk and he started making out with me and stuff and then he just... ummm."

"What did he do?"

"I feel like whatever I say is too much information."

"Dude, just tell me. I've heard it all."

"He put his hand up my shirt..."

"That's all?" Julia commented.

"That's all?" I repeated and my voice cracked.

She must've noticed the concern on my face because she spoke up quickly.

"No, I mean you were acting like you had to say something much worse. Why is that bothering you?"

"He also reached for my pants."

Julia's expression went from surprise to sympathetic.

"Do you not want a sexual relationship with him?"

"No, I mean I do, but I guess it caught me off guard. Plus he's drunk and all."

"So it's a mixture of him being drunk and you not being ready?"

"I'm ready." I squeaked.

She quirked her eyebrow at me.

"Ok fine, I'm not. I'm terrified."

She started laughing and I felt embarrassed. She looked at me and stopped laughing.

"I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at how you answered. How you feel is valid."

"I'm just scared."

"Why?"

"Well, my boyfriend, he's...."

"Horny?"

I sputtered and Julia continued to laugh at my expense.

"I'm guessing I'm right. But why are you scared?"

"If I don't, you know, he might leave me for someone who will."

"You don't have a lot of faith in your boyfriend or in your relationship, do you?"

I scoffed.

"I do."

"Then why don't you trust your boyfriend?"

"He's left me before."

"Then why are you still dating him?"

"He... we weren't dating. He's changed."

"So you do trust him?"

"Of course, it's more of a problem with me."

"I think you should talk to him about it."

'Yeah, you're right. Thanks."

"Yeah, if you want, I can give you my phone number and we can talk more. You seem really cool."

It sounds weird for someone to call me cool.

"Yeah, totally."

I took out my phone and handed it to her and she gave me hers. We then gave each other's phones back. I changed the name Julia to something I found more fitting.

"I think I'm gonna head back to him."

Julia nodded.

I got up and went to the door.

"Hey Michael?"

I turned back to her.

"You are friends with Christine Canigula right?"

"Yeah, she's one of my best friends, why?"

"Can you maybe, introduce me to her?"

Julia's calm demeanor turned a little bit nervous.

"I mean, yeah. I totally could, she's here, you know?"

Her eyes widened.

"She is?"

I nodded.

"I know you wanna get back to your boyfriend and all but..."

"Yeah, I'll introduce you to her."

She smiled and got out of the tub. The most accurate way to describe her was that she looked like Stella off of Lemonade mouth. She was scaringly similar the more I looked at her. Instead of wearing her prom outfit, she was wearing blue short overalls with a white off the shoulder top underneath. She was also wearing brown combat boots. She followed me out of the bathroom and down the stairs.

"Hey Mikey!" Brooke exclaimed.

"Hey Brooke."

"Wow, Jeremy really went to town on your neck." Chloe pointed out.

"Hush, leave the boy alone, umm who's this Mikey?" Brooke asked, nodding her head at Julia.

"I'm Julia."

"Oh, nice to meet you Julia."

"Nice to meet you too."

"Do you know where Christine is?" I asked.

"Oh, she was in the backyard last time I knew."

"Alright, thanks Brooke."

"Of course, see you later Mikey."

I started walking to the back door.

"Imagine being able to call the cool kids your friend."

"Well, I mean, you said I was cool and I wanna be friends so..."

"Wait really?"

"Yeah, of course."

I opened the door that led to the back yard. I saw Christine standing in the distance.

"Christine!" I called out.

She jerked her head in my direction. She started walking towards me.

"Hey Mikey, what's up?"

I was glad that if she noticed my neck, she didn't say anything.

"There is someone that I want you to meet."

"Oh, who?"

I moved out of the way and revealed Julia.

"Oh, I've seen some of your art, it's awesome!" Christine exclaimed.

"Y-you have?" Julia stammered out.

"Yeah, you are like awesome."

"I've seen you perform, you are like awesomer. Umm that's not a word."

Christine giggled.

"It's alright, words are overrated anyway. I sometimes say too many of them and then my sentences either get jumbled or trail on forever or... I'm doing it, aren't I?"

"Just a little." I told her.

"But it's fine, I don't mind." Julia cut in.

"Julia, right?"

"You... know my name?"

"Yup!"

"Oh, I didn't think you would. I've been wanting to talk to you."

"You could've always come up to me, I don't bite."

Julia laughed.

"I think I'll leave the two of you here to talk."

They didn't even notice when I left. They were in their own little world.I made my way back inside and went to the guest room. I slowly opened the door and saw that Jeremy was asleep. I closed the door quietly behind me and went to the bed. I took off Jeremy's shoes and put them down on the floor next to the bed. I walked to the other side of the bed. I took off my shoes and laid them on the floor. I didn't want to sleep in my dress pants so I slid them off and folded them. I placed them on top of the rest of the clothes. I slid onto the bed and under the covers. I took off my glasses and set them aside. I slowly fell asleep.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke up pretty early the next morning. It wasn't like super early but earlier than normal on the weekend. I forgot where I was for a few seconds. I grabbed my glasses from the table next to me and put them on. I then remembered the events of the party. Jeremy getting drunk, Jeremy and I making out, me bolting out of the room, meeting Julia in the bathroom, having her talk to Christine. I remembered all of it. I looked over at Jeremy, he was still asleep. I got up from the bed and put my pants back on. I decided I was gonna grab some water and kinda some headache medicine for him. I went down to the kitchen and grabbed some water from the fridge. I ignored the drunk people who were laying on the couch. I went into the bathroom and raided the medicine cabinet. I knew Jake wouldn't mind. I made my way back to the bedroom and saw that Jeremy was up.

"Hey babe, you want some water?" I asked softly.

"My head hurts." Jeremy cried.

"I brought you medicine, baby."

I squatted down in front of him.

"Sit up so you can drink the water sweetie."

Jeremy slowly got up and I handed him the medicine. He didn't seem to mind the pill, which made me both happy and worried. Happy because it made me sad when I saw Jeremy got scared with pills but worried because he must really be in pain. He drank almost all the water in a heartbeat.

"Good job love."

"What happened last night?" Jeremy asked.

"You drank a lot."

"Yeah, I assumed so, did anything else happen?"

The events of last night flashed through my eyes. I ignored it.

"Then you went to sleep."

"I slept through the party?"

"Yeah."

"Oh my god, I'm so lame."

"It's alright, I'm pretty lame too. I went to sleep too."

"Oh, well I guess..." Jeremy started but then looked at me.

"What's on your neck dude?"

Fear filled my body. I didn't wanna bring this up now. I just wanted to push it away and never talk about it again.

"I... uh?"

"Are those hickies?"

"Umm."

"Did I give you those?"

"I..."

"Or did someone else?" Jeremy asked sadly.

"No! It was you, you gave them to me."

"Oh..."

There was an awkward silence. My phone buzzes and Jeremy grabbed it and was about to give it to me when he looked at it. He looked super confused.

"Who's Julia and what is she talking about?"

I took my phone from Jeremy's hand.

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Hey, It's Julia. Just wanted to ask if you got the chance to talk to your boyfriend yet. Tell me how it goes alright?

"Jeremy, I can explain."

"What kind of secrets are you keeping from me Michael? What do you need to talk to me about?"

"Jeremy, please don't be upset."

He looked like he was on the verge of tears.

"Are you breaking up with me?"

His voice sounded torn and broken.

"No! Of course not!"

"Then what do we need to talk about?"

I gulped. I was probably making this a bigger deal than it needed to be.

"I'm not ready!" I exclaimed.

Jeremy looked sad and confused.

"Ready for what?"

"I know that you... um...have desires... but I just... I'm not ready yet."

Jeremy's eyes widened.

"Michael, what did I do last night?"

"It wasn't a big deal..."

"No Micah, tell me what I did last night."

"Well, um, we were making out and then you started reaching up my shirt... and then towards my pants."

Jeremy was quiet. He just put his head in his hands. I slowly put my hand on his back and started rubbing it.++

"Micah, you need to break up with me."

"What? Why?"

"I... I totally... I can't believe I did that. Michael, I will never be able to forgive myself for that."

"Jere, you were drunk."

"That doesn't make it ok! What happened with Chloe traumatized me, and I just did that to you..."

Jeremy vaguely told me what happened with Chloe at Jake's party. Everytime he would try to tell the story, he would panic. I never pushed him to tell the story because I knew how much it hurt him.

"No, you didn't. You didn't actually do anything."

"Chloe didn't do much to me either but it still hurts. I can't believe I did that to you."

"Jeremy, I'm ok. You just scared me a bit. You didn't hurt me. The moment I pushed you off, you stopped. You didn't keep going or anything."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, and I want to do those things with you, just not now."

"I know what I did was absolutely horrible and I'm so sorry."

"Jere, I'm ok. It doesn't hurt me. I forgive you."

I pulled Jeremy into a hug.

"You are way too forgiving Michael."

"It's alright Jere."

"I know it's not."

"Well, I mean, no, it's not, but I'm ok alright?"

"Doesn't matter, what I did was wrong."

"Baby, don't beat yourself up over it.You stopped, that's the best thing you could've done."

"I could've asked if it was ok."

"Yeah, but I didn't say no."

"But not saying no isn't you saying yes."

"I know, I just don't want you to be upset over this forever."

"Thank you, for being honest with me. I hope you know that if I was in the right state of mind, that never would've happened and it will never happen again. I swear on everything."

"I know baby."

I kissed him on the cheek.

"Can I kiss you?" Jeremy asked slowly.

"You don't have to ask babe."

"Are you sure? Because I will ask every single time before I kiss you if that's what you want."

I chuckled.

"I'm sure."

I pulled him into a kiss. His lips were still as soft as they were last night. He kisses me like the way we usually kiss. It was nice but the way we kissed last night was something else. The kisses from last night were unforgettable. My problem wasn't the kisses, it wasn't him being on me, it wasn't him kissing my neck and it wasn't even him grabbing under my shirt. Just the moment he went towards my pants is when it scared me. I didn't know how long it would be like that. Who knows, maybe next week I'll be ready and the fact that Jeremy was willing to wait, made me feel so much better.

I pulled away and looked at Jeremy.

"Can we um.... make out?"

I realized how awkward that sounded. Jeremy was shocked.

"You actually want to?"

"Yeah, I do. I really do."

"Alright, but if you wanna stop, then just, start tapping on my leg or something."

I nodded. Jeremy leaned in and kissed me. The kiss that started out normal became like one from last night pretty quickly. It felt amazing. Jeremy pulled away.

"Do you wanna take the lead?" He asked.

"I... yeah."

I leaned in and kissed him again. Our lips broke apart but it felt like there was a force trying to reconnect them. After a while of some broken kisses, I licked his lips and he slowly parted his lips. Jeremy whimpered as I hand my hands up his side. I then ran my fingers through his hair. It was a little hard, which I assumed was from the gel he used yesterday. After everything we pulled away for air, almost immediately after, we would lean back in. I pulled away and looked at him. He wore a dazed smile, like one that he used when he got high.

"Can I..." I asked, hoping he would understand.

12 years of friendship was surely helpful.

"Yeah, just, don't leave any marks that are easy to see, I don't want my dad..." I nodded and then slowly moved to his neck.

I pressed a light kiss to his neck, just to see how he would react. Turns out, Jere was way more sensitive than I thought. He whined the moment I pressed the kiss to this neck. I peppered his neck with light kisses. Jeremy's arms were very awkwardly placed. You could tell he was trying to not touch my waist in fear of making me uncomfortable. I pulled away and grabbed his arms and put them around my waist. I felt him tense.

"Jere, it's ok. This isn't what bothered me, alright? If you do anything that makes me uncomfortable, I'll tap your leg, alright>"

Jeremy looked scared but he still nodded. I pulled him back in and kissed his neck again. Jeremy started to feel less tense. He slowly put his hands under my shirt, just to see if I was ok with it. My heart was racing, but in a good way. I pulled him closer to me and kissed his lips again. Jeremy's warm hands ran up and down my sides. It felt amazing.

+Tiny Time Skip (They made out a lot)+

"You never answered me about who Julia was."

"Oh, she's a girl I found sitting in the bathtub last night."

Jeremy was in confused shock.

"You found a girl named Julia in a bathtub last night?"

I nodded.

"She was nice and pretty cool. She looked like younger Hayley Kiyoko. I also think she has a thing for Christine."

"Really? Dude. I wanna meet her."

"You will, I promise."

"You should probably text her back."

"Oh right."

I grabbed my phone off the table and opened my messages.

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Hey, everything is good. Jere and I talked it out and we are good."

To my surprise, she answered quickly.

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

That's good

Wait a min

Jere?

As in Jeremy?

Jeremy Heere?

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Yea? You didn't know that?

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Dude, thought you had a thing for Jenna until last night

I didn't know Jeremy liked guys

But that's awesome

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Thanks, how did things go with Christine?

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

You aren't gonna judge me or anything, are ya?

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

No, of course not

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Your boyfriend isn't gonna either right?

I mean I know he dated her so

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

No, him and I are HAPPY

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Alright

Jezz mr.sap

She's adorable

Her love for theatre, amazing

She's just so passionate

THANK YOU FOR INTRODUCING ME TO HER

She said i was cool!!!

AND HER NUMBER WAS OBTAINED

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

That's awesome!

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Question

Be honest

How are my chances looking?

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

oof

ummm

I'm actually not sure

I kinda got the idea Christine was straight

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

:((((

Why are the cute ones always straight?

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyok

o

idk

but

Maybe I'm wrong

Chris is unpredictable like that

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Chris<3333

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

wow

You miss

Are a useless gay

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Oh

We been knew bby

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Gross

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Yea yea, whatever

Just nice to know u and Jeremy are good

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Yeah, he feels absolutely awful about it tho, I feel kinda bad

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

understandable

but telling him was the right way to go

How bad he feels just shows how much he cares for you and your feelings

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Yea, ig you're right

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

bitch

Of course I'm right

smh

Anyway gtg

Mom's calling

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Alright, see u on the flip side

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

I---

How do u have a bf again?

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

He likes my charm<3

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

right

Btw introduce me to him too

byyyye

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

I will

byeeee

"How are you feeling?" I asked Jere.

"Not great, somewhat better but my head still hurts."

"Want some more water?"

"Can you get me some?"

"Yeah, I'll be right back."

I grabbed the cup off the table and made my way to the kitchen.

"Hey Mikey."

I turned around and saw Rich standing there.

"Oh hey Rich, how you doing?"

"Pretty well, little sore." Rich said with a smirk.

My face scrunched up.

"Didn't need to know that Rich, thanks."

He laughed.

"Whatcha still doing here? Thought you woulda went home by now."

"Tryna kick me out already?"

"Nah man, just thought you would have drove home last night."

"I drank a bit last night."

"Really? I saw Jeremy drink a lot but I didn't see you drink anything."

"I had a cup."

Rich laughed.

"That's all?"

"Yeah, I don't like alcohol."

"That's such a you thing to say."

"Is that bad?"

Rich just patted me on the back and went into the fridge.

"How are you not like dying?"

"I don't get hungover."  
"How?"

"Magic of awesomeness."

Rich pulled out a container of orange juice and drank it straight from the carton.

"I wish Jeremy didn't get hungover, I hate seeing him in pain."

"You guys are like grossly cute together."

I smiled. Even if people thought that Jeremy and I were overly affectionate, it was nice to hear that people thought we were good together. I just really cared for him.

"Thanks, we try."

Rich and I continued to talk for a little bit but then I remember I was supposed to bring water to Jere. I grabbed some water, said bye to Rich and went back to Jeremy. When I got to the room, he was scrolling through his phone.

"Here babe." I said and handed him the water.

"Wow, you looked amazing last night."

"Huh?"

"Jenna posted you getting ready."

"Oh, thanks, you looked amazing too. You wanna head home?"

"Can we go to your house and play some video games or something?"

"Yeah, let's go."

I grabbed our blazers off the bedside table and put my shoes on. I led Jeremy down the stairs. We met with Rich in the living room.

"Heading out already?"

"Yeah, gonna go home and play some video games."

"Nerds, alright, catch y'all later."

And we spent the rest of the day having fun together. Hanging out with Jeremy always made everything so much better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to actually look up how to write making out bc I've never kissed anyone before :) Hope it wasn't too cringy.  
> Also I kept writing Julia as Stella bc Lemonade Mouth. Julia won't be a major character or anything but she is kinda part of the SQUIP squad.


	10. SQUIP Problems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy's been acting weird, almost as if the SQUIP was trying to take control all over again.

Something about today felt off. I had no clue what it was, but it was bugging me. Jeremy didn't text me back yesterday, like at all. I shrugged it off, maybe he was just busy. I got ready for school and then drove over to his house. He was taking forever so I decided to go up to the door. Just as I walked up the porch steps, Mr. Heere walked out the door.

"Hey Mr. Heere." I said with a smile.

"Michael? What are you doing here?"

"I always come to pick up Jeremy." I reminded him.

"He didn't tell you? He said he was walking to school today."

I frowned. I pulled out my phone and there were no messages from him.

"Alright, thanks Mr. Heere." I said before I waved and walked back to my car.

I drove to school. Ok, that was weird. I kept driving to school as I felt my stomach fill with worry. Was Jeremy ok? I made it to school only a few minutes before the first bell rang. I quickly went to my locker, grabbed my stuff and then went to class. I couldn't think about anything but Jeremy. He still hadn't texted me and he gave me no warning that he was walking to school. I tried to focus on my work but it wasn't working. I saw Jeremy in 1st period and he seemed incredibly off. He wasn't wearing his normal cardigan or his glasses. He was just wearing some random hoodie and a shirt I've never seen before. I went up and tried to talk to him but he started talking to someone else the moment I did. What's going on? At lunch, Jeremy was nowhere to be found.

"Hey, where's Jeremy?" Brooke asked.

Everyone at the table just looked amongst themselves.

"Yeah, where is he? Did you guys think he was acting a little strange?"

Murmurs in agreement happened amongst the table.

"Yeah like he isn't even wearing his glasses like what's up with that?"

Rich looked tense but didn't say anything.

"He completely ignored me this morning." I told them.

Everyone looked at me. They all knew about Jeremy starting to ignore me and also about what happened on Halloween.

"Oh Mikey, I'm sorry. Maybe Jeremy is just having an off day. Let's just give him some space and see him all new and improved tomorrow." Christine chirped.

I hoped it was only an off day.

++Time Skip++

So it wasn't an off day. It was more of an off few days. Jeremy still had yet to talk to me and I was losing it. All of my friends noticed it and so did my moms but none of them said anything. What was wrong with Jeremy? It was almost and I didn't feel like eating. I was way too worried about him. Was it something I did? I started to think I was to blame. Maybe I said something bad to him. I couldn't find him in the halls and he completely ignored me in class. I know Christine said to leave it but at this point, I couldn't. I was losing my best friend again. This time, I didn't have a supercomputer to blame for it. He realized I wasn't good enough for him, but that didn't explain why he was acting strange towards everyone else. I was walking towards the cafeteria as I felt a hard pull on my arm. The pull causes me to fall into the bathroom.

"Shit, sorry Michael. I didn't think I would pull you that hard."

I looked up and saw Rich standing there.

"Um... Rich?"

He hummed.

"Why did you yank me in here?"

He smiled brightly and nodded before his face changed.

"Right, that's what we gotta talk about."

I rolled my hands in front of me, urging him to continue.

"I think I know what's wrong with Jeremy."

My eyes widened.

"You do?"

"I think it might be a stretch but based off what I've seen, I should've said something earlier but..."

"Rich, what's up with Jeremy?"

"I think the SQUIP is back."

My heart felt like it stopped.

"Please tell me you are kidding."

"No, I mean look at him. He's not wearing his glasses or his nerdy t-shirts. And he's ignoring the people who care about him."  
I had to do something. The problem wasn't the Mountain Dew Red, I had gotten quite a bit of that from the guy at Spencer's. The problem was, I had no way to get to Jeremy. He was completely ignoring me.

"So, what's our action plan?" Rich asked.

"Are you and Jake free tonight?"

"I mean we kinda were planning on going out..."

I shot Rich an angry glare.

"But we can do that another night." He said quickly.

I smiled. I was gonna get my best friend back.

++Time skip++

So that was how Jake, Rich and I all ended up at Jeremy's house that night.

"So how are we gonna do this? Smash through the window? Break down the door?"

Jake and I both looked at Rich. My jaw dropped slightly. I licked my lips before holding up the key I had.

"Oh, that works too I guess."

I slowly unlocked and opened the door, careful not to make any sounds. The three of us snuck up stairs and were about to enter Jeremy's room. Hopefully, Jeremy wasn't jerking off. That would be an awkward situation that I knew Jake and Rich wanted to avoid. I quickly opened his door and we were met with Jeremy doing push ups. He looked at us and shot up.

"What are you guys doing here?"

I nodded. Both Jake and Rich walked towards Jeremy. He started screaming. I really hoped no one would call the cops. The both of them held Jeremy down and I grabbed the Mountain Dew Red. I forced it into his mouth. The moment he started shaking, Jake and Rich let go of him. They both had their hands up. Jeremy then passed out.

"I... um... we should go." Jake said quickly before grabbing Rich and leading him out the door.

I guess I just had to wait for Jeremy to wake up, which I hoped would happen soon.

++++

It only took like an hour luckily.

"Micah?" Jeremy asked groggily.

"Hey Jere, you're ok now."

"I... I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, it's not your fault. Tell me what happened."

"Well, it started with an awful nightmare. And then it just came back. It's not like it hasn't come back before but this was like almost full force. I don't know what's going on."

I hated seeing Jeremy in so much pain.

"It told me all the same things as before like how I would be better off dead and how I'm terrible."

Jeremy started crying. I pulled him into a hug and rubbed his back.

"I'm here for you Miah, I'll always be here."

"But how could you? I left you! I treated you like garbage and you still helped me!" He cried. He buried his head into his hands.

"Why?" He mumbled.

"Because I love you Jeremy, Not even in just a romantic way. You are my best friend and sure, you were a massive asshole but I still loved you and I still love you now. I'm staying here. I'm not going anywhere."

I held onto him as he cried. He wasn't ok, but I would be there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the chapter is so short. Next one is longer.


	11. Fair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael and Jeremy go to the fair together and are all cute.

School came to an end and I was beyond excited. I wouldn't have to deal with homework or annoying teachers. Sure finals were kicked my ass but that just meant it was summer. Hanging out with my friends and late nights with Jeremy sounded like the perfect way to spend it. Sure I did those things already but now I could do it AND wake up after 10 o'clock. Summer wasn't the best though. I absolutely hated the bugs and the heat was unbearable. New Jersey wasn't even that hot so that was saying something. I preferred the nice holiday time December brought. I absolutely loved the cold weather and watching the snowfall was one of my favorite things. Also, it was a time of hot cocoa and my birthday which made winter pretty sweet. Summer was still pretty good though. There was swimming and lemonade. There was also going to the beach. Alright, I didn't like going to the beach. Sorry, I don't want sand everywhere for the next 3 weeks. But the boardwalks were nice.

There was only one year that Jeremy and I didn't spend the summer together since we met and that was before we started high school. My moms insisted that we went to the Philippines to visit family. It was fine. The Philippines were a nice place but I barely got to talk to Jeremy. Out of country communication was expensive and also timezones were a pain to deal with. I got to spend a lot of time with my cousins, which was pretty hit or miss. My cousin Chesa, was wonderful. She was around my age and was pretty interesting to talk to. My older cousin Ramil, on the other hand, was as dimensional as a one-block Rubix cube. He was pretty self-absorbed and almost always refused to talk to me. He said I wasn't "cool enough" or that I was "too young" to hang out with him. He's two years older than me. My aunts and uncles kept asking me if I had a girlfriend and I would just sit there awkwardly as my mom would explain to them that I wouldn't be having a girlfriend anytime soon...or at all. They were all pretty chill about it. Sure I got some strange looks but they at least pretended to understand for my sake. When our trip ended, I was happy to be home. I was completely jet-lagged so I didn't get to see Jeremy right away. The moment I saw him though, I noticed some changes. One, he was taller. He didn't have like a huge growth spurt or anything but he was noticeably taller. He also had very lanky arms. His voice cracks were very new for him. He would get super embarrassed by them. The most noticeable thing was Jeremy's acne. Quite a few pimples littered his face. He was also quite embarrassed by them. He had also gotten a hair cut since school was starting back up soon. Now there is this thing where that if you still like your crush after a hair cut, then it basically love at that point. I always thought it was kinda dumb because Jeremy looked good no matter what haircut he got. Yeah, I was in deep. But now, I was gonna spend all my time with him. I already had a date planned out.

To Player Two<3

You

Me

Epic date night

Player Two<3

Down

To Player Two<3

You don't even know what it is

Player Two<3

Do I need to?

To Player Two<3

Fair point

But the fair is coming to town, you know what that means

Player Two<3

Funnel cakes and spinny fair rides where you question the safety of them?

To Player Two<3

EXACTLY

Player Two<3

Dork

To Player Two<3

Jereeee?

Player Two<3

?

To Player Two<3

Can we be that couple who goes on the Ferris wheel together?

Pwetty Pwease

Player Two<3

How about we are that couple who goes on the Ferris wheel and kiss at the top

To Player Two<3

Holy shit

You are my soulmate

Player Two<3

:)

To Player Two<3

See ya tomorrow

Player Two<3

Bye!

I had a date to the fair

+++++

I absolutely loved fairs. They just had a good vibe to them. Only monsters would go to a fair and no have fun. I was waiting outside Jeremy's house. He told me he would be out in a minute. It was decently hot outside. Instead of my normal red hoddie, I decided to change my look a bit. It was both for a practical purpose but also just impressing Jeremy. I was wearing a plain white t-shirt and a dark blue flannel. It was very rare for me to wear flannels. So rare that I only had 2 that I've worn like once each. I wore some black jeans and white sneakers to top it off. Jeremy walked out of the house and I fell in love with him all over again. He was wearing a black graphic tee with an open blue-button up on top. He was wearing some blue jeans and converse. He smiled as he got into the car.

"Hey, Micah." He said as he leaned over and gave me a peck on the lips.

"Hey Jere, you ready for a fairtastic day?"

Jeremy looked at me blankly for a few seconds before smiling.

"Just drive you, dork."

I nodded and then I drove off. The fair wasn't far away, only like 15 minutes. Jeremy showed me a few songs he thought I would like.

"Hey, how about you finally show me the Percy Jackson musical?" I asked.

"Oh right, you could've looked it up you know?"

"Well yeah, but listening to musicals with you is fun."

Jeremy blushed.

"Alright, yeah, we can listen to it later."

I nodded as I continued to drive. I snook a few glances at Jeremy as he scrolled on his phone. Every time he would look up, I would look away.

"Why do you keep looking at me?"

"Because you are beautiful."

"Am not."

"Are too. I don't lie. You can call me good ole Abe Lincoln."

Jeremy snorted.

"You made me snort, gross."

"I thought it was cute."

Jeremy's face grew red.

"Shut up." He mumbled.

I pulled into the parking lot of the fair. There were quite a few cars there but not like super crowded or anything. I pulled into a parking spot and turned off the car. Before getting out, Jeremy and I just looked at each other.

"Hey, Jere?"

He hummed.

"Tie your shoe."

Jeremy furrows his eyebrows.

"But my shoes are ti..."

"Because I don't want you falling for anyone else."

Jeremy didn't say anything, he just got out of the car. I opened my door and ran after him.

"Hey, you can't just leave me," I told him.

He stopped walking.

"I can, that was awful and I'm embarrassed to be associated with you."

I looked down and smiled.

"Shall we?" He asked as he held out his hand.

My smile grew wider. Instead of answering, I grabbed his hand and pulled him to the ticket booth. I bought us our tickets and we were allowed into the fair. We had gotten there in the late afternoon. As we walked through the fair, all sorts of smells wafted throughout the air. All the different smells merged together. From sweet cotton candy to savory burgers, you could smell it all. There were screams from tiny children, either begging to go on another ride or from the intensity of the ride they were currently on. There were lots of different rides to chose from. They went from tiny cars that went in small circles for the kids to pretty decently sized roller coasters. We could hear the screams of terror as the cart zoomed past us on the tracks. The Ferris Wheel stood feet above us. Shouts from connies enticing you to play their games. They were all incredibly rigged and everyone knew this fact and yet everyone still played them. A nervous girl was holding a guy's hand as they made their way to the haunted house line. The Ferris wheel stood dozens of feet above us. The line was pretty short, only consisting of a small group of teenagers and a small kid with his mother.

"So... whatcha wanna do first?"

"Wanna go watch some people butcher karaoke?" Jeremy asked, his small grin turned into a large smile.

"I thought you'd never ask."   
We walked to the stage they had set up at the fairgrounds. Only a few people sat in the audience. On the stage was a trio of teenage girls, who seemed to be deciding a song. After about a minute or two, the girls talked to the man who was running the station. He looked like he would rather be anywhere else. Soon, the familiar beat of a song came on. It was Call Me Maybe.

"People still listen to this song?" Jeremy whispered.

I shrugged. The girls... weren't completely awful. Ok, no, they totally were. One of the girls was way too confident in herself and was completely off-key. The other two weren't that bad, singing wise that is. One of them was just not very good at knowing when to go. The third girl, who seemed to be the shy one out of the three, looked like she was forced to be there. She was actually pretty good though. I wasn't a very good vocal coach. I was probably like one of the least qualified to be one. As long as someone didn't sound liked someone was ripping out their vocal cords, I thought they were pretty good. Christine knew a lot more about it than I did. She would constantly complain that her pitch and tone were off and I had no clue what that meant.

"Dude, I dare you to go up there and sing something."

I looked over at Jeremy and laughed at him.

"I'm serious. I'll buy your food if you do."

I looked up at the stage and then back at Jeremy. I realized I could've easily said no. Jeremy wouldn't have fought it. Without saying anything else, I went up to the guy working at the station. He looked at me in surprise.

"You wanna sing?"

"My boyfriend wants me to."

"Right, just pick a song from there." He said tiredly and pointed at a sheet of paper.

On the paper, there was a list of songs. I knew about 2 of them and one of them was Call Me Maybe. I sighed realizing how ironic the song I was about to sing was. I told the guy and even he chuckled. I stepped up on the stage and the music played. Jeremy noticed the song almost instantly.

This was never the way I planned

Not my intention

I got so brave, drink in hand

Lost my discretion

It's not what, I'm used to

Just wanna try you on

I'm curious for you

Caught my attention

I kissed a girl and I liked it

The taste of her cherry chapstick

I kissed a girl just to try it

I hope my boyfriend don't mind it

It felt so wrong

It felt so right

Don't mean I'm in love tonight

I kissed a girl and I liked it

I liked it

I had to stop myself from dying of laughter on stage. Jeremy didn't even pretend like he wasn't laughing. The audience seemed pretty intrigued by me.

No, I don't even know your name

It doesn't matter

You're my experimental game

Just human nature

It's not what, good girls do

Not how they should behave

My head gets so confused

Hard to obey

I kissed a girl and I liked it

The taste of her cherry chapstick

I kissed a girl just to try it

I hope my boyfriend don't mind it

It felt so wrong

It felt so right

Don't mean I'm in love tonight

I kissed a girl and I liked it

I liked it

The beat of the song changed. I noticed Jeremy was now recording me at this point. I knew it was gonna happen so I might as well own it.

Us girls we are so magical

Soft skin, red lips, so kissable

Hard to resist so touchable

Too good to deny it

Ain't no big deal, it's innocent

I kissed a girl and I liked it

The song was coming to an end so I decided to put all of my heart into it.

The taste of her cherry chapstick

I kissed a girl just to try it

I hope my boyfriend don't mind it

It felt so wrong

It felt so right

Don't mean I'm in love tonight

I kissed a girl and I liked it

I liked it

The moment the song ended, the audience clapped. I bowed before quickly making my way off the stage. I immediately went over to Jeremy.

"I never thought you would do it, holy shit man, that was gold."

I smiled and looked away before he could see my blush. Jeremy lifted up my chin before leaning in and kissing me. Kissing Jeremy was probably my favorite thing other than playing video games with him. After he pulled away he smiled.

"Kinda ironic song choice."

I giggled.

"Yeah, I know. Now I think someone owes me some food."

"I think I do, whatcha want?"

"How about pizza?"

"Yeah, I'm down for that."

I ordered our pizza since Jeremy didn't want to. I was fine with that. After we got our pizza, we found a nearby bench to sit at. The pizza was decent. It wasn't gross or anything but it was fair pizza. I was satisfied. I took a sip out of my Sierra Mist.

"I still can't believe they said they had Sprite and then gave me this shit," I complained.

"Micah, it's the same thing."

I gasped.

"Jeremiah, you take that back. It's like asking for Pepsi and they give you Coke."

"But Coke is better than Pepsi..."

My jaw dropped. Never in 17 years have I felt so betrayed.

"That's it, we're done."

"I can't believe our relationship is dependent on my beverage choice."

"Of course it is!"

We both laughed. I loved this idiot, even with his poor soda taste.

"You know what I just thought of?" Jeremy asked.

"How bad your soda taste is?" I teased.

"No, we should have a group laser tag session."

"Do you want us to get banned?  
He giggled."No, maybe Jake can keep Rich under control."

"I doubt it. They'll probably be making out the whole time."

Jeremy shrugged.

"But, I think it would be a fun time."

We then went to go play some stupid carnival games. I knew they were rigged but I wanted to win my boyfriend something alright? I knew I wouldn't be good at a lot of the games. Like anything that had to do with throwing a ball was out of the question and any luck games were basically against me so my options were very small. Just then, Jeremy stopped in front of a game station. I looked up and saw he was looking at a balloon popping one. He wasn't looking at that though, he was looking at the Pikachu plushie that was one of the prizes. I smiled as I looked at him.

"I'm gonna win it for you," I told him.

Jeremy glanced at me."You don't have to."

"But I want to, plus I know this game." I boasted.

Alright, that was definitely a lie. I have absolutely horrible aim. But, I was gonna do this for Jeremy. I paid the lady and she told me I had to pop three of the balloons to win. I took a deep breath, I had to do this for Jeremy. If I lost, he'd tell me it was ok but I wanted to do this for him. The sounds of bells and screaming were ringing in my head. I focused as I could be at that moment. I threw the first dart. Pop! Alright, just two more to go. I threw the second dart and pop! One more. That's all I had to do. Come on Michael, don't mess it up now. I threw the third dart and IT POPPED! I did it! I played it off like I expected it to happen when in reality I was so happy, I gave him the prize and he immediately pulled me into a tight hug. He swayed me back and forth. The lady running the same gave me a kind smile.

"You guys are adorable." She commented.

Jeremy pulled away before grabbing my hand.

"Thank you." He said with a smile.

We walked around the fair more hand in hand. There was a guy advertising one of those water squirting games so Jeremy and I decided to play.

"You're going down Heere!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah right." Jeremy scoffed.

I won that game. I gave that prize to Jeremy as well.

"Wow, who knew my boyfriend was so good at carnival games?"

"What can I say? I'm the best." I said as I brushed off my shoulder.

Jeremy nudged me and started laughing.

" Are you my homework?" I asked randomly.

"Micah I swear if this is another stupid pickup line..."

"Cause I'm not doing you but I definitely should be."

Jeremy groaned and whacked me on the shoulder.

"Three."

"Three?" I queried.

"You have 3 more pickup lines before I dump you." Jeremy joked.

"Like three today or three over the course of our whole relationship?"

He shrugged. "I guess you'll just have to see."

There was then one of those duck games. The one where you had to randomly pick a duck and based on the color underneath, you'd get a prize. In the end, Jeremy and I had both gotten yellow, which was for a small prize. I got a pack of temporary tattoos and Jeremy got a pack of emoji stickers. I felt a light tap on my face. I looked over at Jeremy and he was holding the sticker sheet. I noticed there was a sticker missing.

"Did you just..."

"Yeah, yeah I did."

I didn't know what sticker Jeremy had put on my face, but based on where the missing sticker was, it was probably some sort of heart. I took the sticker sheet from him and grabbed another heart sticker. I lightly put it on his cheek. He blushed and looked away. I looked past him and I saw Henna tattoos. I dragged Jeremy over to the stand. Sitting there, was a kind looking woman.

"You want something?"

I nodded eagerly. She handed me a small book full of different designs.

"What's with you and tattoos?" Jeremy asked.

I shrugged. I continued to look through the designs until I noticed a dope looking music notes. In the middle of a few small music notes, was a treble clef. The woman noticed me looking at it for a while.   
"You want this one?"

I flashed her a huge grin before nodding. She gestured to me to sit down in the seat. I slowly sat down and she rolled up my flannel sleeve. She then started getting to work. She was pretty focused on it.

"This suits you." She said out of the blue.

"You think so?"

She nodded. "I can tell."

I smiled and looked over at Jeremy who was sitting on the chair next to me. Instead of being on his phone like I thought he would be, he was eagerly watching. It didn't take very long for her to do it. She would make small talk with me every now and then. Asking me about how old I was and how my summer was going. She was a nice lady so even though I hated small talk, I answered her. When it was finished, she told me to be careful to not smudge it. I paid her and Jeremy and I went on our merry way. We walked around the fair and looked at the overpriced shit. We didn't buy any of it but it was fun to look at. After that, I bought Jeremy and me some ice cream and a funnel cake for us to share. When we sat down to eat, a sudden realization came to me.

"Hey, Jere?"

"Hm?"

"You're bi right?" I asked.

He furrowed his eyebrows and nodded.

"How did you figure that out?"

Jeremy's face grew a deep shade of red.

"Do I really have to tell you?"

"Why? Is it embarrassing?"

Jeremy didn't answer, his face only grew redder.

"Oh my god, it is! You have to tell me now!"

"If I tell you, promise not to laugh."

I patted him on the shoulder.

"You know I can't promise that Jere. Now tell me."

I put my hands on the table and put my chin in my palms.

"Whatever, I'll tell you but you can't tell anyone."

I nodded, urging him to continue.

"So I was home alone one day..."

"And that's where all good stories start," I interjected.

"Micah..."

"Right, sorry. I won't interrupt, keep going."

"So I was... bored and decided to go on my computer..."

"Jere, just say you were watching porn."

"Micah!" He screeched.

"Well, were you?"

Jeremy's face got even redder somehow. He just gave a small huff.

"Anyway, as I was on my computer...I started noticing myself watching the guy... like a lot."

"Wait really?"

He nodded.

"And I was really confused because that's never really happened. I like always kept my focus on the girl so when that happened I was pretty freaked out. I went scrolling through my phone to try to distract myself and I saw a picture of a cute guy and instead of the "I wish I was him" I thought "I wonder what it would like to be with him." That's when I called you. I needed anything to get my mind off of it and you did for a while but then I was thinking like "wow Michael is such a wonderful friend, Rich is lucky to have him" and I didn't notice it then but now I look back, it was totally jealous thinking. And then, Christine broke up with me and you were there and it all sorta clicked."

Wow, that was quite the story. I didn't have anything good to say.

"So you found out you were bi because you watched some hot guy in a porno?"

Jeremy slammed his head on the table. I rubbed my hand on his head.

"It's alright dude, we all gotta figure out somehow."

He lifted his head to look at me.

"Speaking of which, how did you find out you were gay?"

"You were my gay realization dude."

"Wait really?"

"Yeah, it hit me like a bunch of bricks dude. I was just like "Its not weird to think your best friends is hot right? It's not weird to wanna kiss your best friend right? It's not weird to wanna date your best friend right?" and then it was obvious."

"Wow, I wasn't expecting that."

"Neither was I, Jere. I think you win in the realization game."

"It wasn't a contest."

"Oh, I made it one," I said with a smirk.

Jeremy rolled his eyes. He grabbed my hand and I smiled. He got up and started dragging me towards the ride tickets booth. We only bought a few tickets. There weren't many rides in the first place and the ones there were mostly geared towards kids. We went on the haunted house ride, which wasn't scary whatsoever, the scrambler, which almost caused Jeremy to puke. I told Jeremy that if he puked, I would not kiss him for the rest of the night. He whined and told me it wasn;t his fault. It wasn't but my point still stood. Then we went into a fun house. I absolutely loved fun houses and I always have. Jeremy thought we would be "too old" and I told him that "you are never too old for fun." He did have fun though so that was a victory to me. As the sunset, the lights of the fairground illuminated the sky. The Ferris wheel had bright flashing colors on it. The line was considerably longer than before.

"Come on Jere!"

I pulled him over to the line. As we waited, Jeremy grabbed his earbuds out of his pocket and plugged them into his phone. He handed me one of the earbuds and started typing on his phone. He pressed down on something and the sound of thunder cracking hit my ears. I looked up and noticed it wasn't from the sky.

"That's how the song starts off you dork." Jeremy teased.

I rolled my eyes and slowly nodded. Turns out, the song was from The Lighting Thief musical Christine was talking about. It's been a while since I read the book but I did remember a good amount of the story. We got through the first and second song before we got to go on the ferris wheel. The Ferris wheel moved slowly in the air. Jeremy looked out of the side and stared at the world below and at the night sky. I just looked at Jeremy.

"Absolutely beautiful."

Jeremy turned to look at me and smiled.

"I know, the lights and the sky... it's all so beautiful."

I smirked. "I wasn't talking about the sky."

I grabbed Jeremy's hand and kissed his knuckles. The lights from the Ferris wheel lit up Jeremy's face so I could see his face. It was bright red. I leaned in and gave Jeremy a long kiss on the lips. This was the romantic moment I was waiting for during this date. The world melted away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was gonna write this as a beach chapter but I don't like beaches so.


	12. Pool Party Chaos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake hosts a pool party and Michael is feeling kinda iffy about it.   
> Also heavily implied that Jeremy is a horny guy and gets a boner lmao

It was all Jake's idea. The 4th of July was coming up. We didn't have any big plans or anything. We were just gonna watch the fireworks from the park down the street. But that wasn't good enough for Rich or Jake.

Goin' Viral Deserved Better

Sbarro Bro

Pool party at my place on the 4th of July!!!

Lispy Bi

I'M DOWN

Sbarro Bro

Babe, I know, you're right next to me

Lispy Bi

Shhhh

Theatre Geek

I'll be there and I'll bring cupcakes!

Carl Azuz

Now I'm totally coming

Sbarro Bro

Wow, you weren't gonna come just because your best friend is hosting a party

Carl Azuz

Michael is hosting a party?

Sbarro Bro

Damn that was low

Carl Azuz

I love you <3333

Pinkberry Girl

I'll be there

Mythic Bitch

Me 2

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

I'm still in Cali rip

Sbarro Bro

Ah yes, it's a shame

How could your parents make u suffer by making you go to Cali? How dare they take you to a warm place with amusement parks and beaches? The horror!

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Watch it Dillinger

I will fly all the way back to Jersey to rip your balls off

Lispy Bi

Here's a crazy concept

Maybe you shouldn't do that?

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

I'm coming for you next shorty

Lispy Bi

Jeez when did we get another Chloe?

Mythic Bitch

Fuck you

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Fuck you

Sbarro Bro

That's some good jinxing right there

Anyway, Michael? Jeremy?

To Goin' Viral Deserved Better

I'm down

Sbarro Bro

Alright, that's everyone

Player Two<3

Hey, I never said I was going

Lispy Bi

We all know that if Michael goes, u are too

Player Two<3

HEY! That's not true

Sbarro Bro

So u aren't coming?

Player Two<3

.....

I am

But not bc of Michael

Sbarro Bro

Idk

Seems kinda related, thoughts?

Carl Azuz

Yea I see a correlation

Pinkberry Girl

It's totally related

Mythic Bitch

It is

Theatre Geek

YES

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Gay

Lispy Bi

It's Alabama up in here

Mythic Bitch

I-- someone delete him from this

Lispy Bi

RUDE

Sbarro Bro

No one will remove him or I will break their knee caps :)

Lispy Bi

Aww I love you <3

Mythic Bitch

Can we keep this nasty shit out of the chat

thx

To Goin' Viral Deserved Better

Aww Jere, just admit you love me

Player Two<3

Blocked

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

I have a question

What the fuck does the groupchat name mean?

Sbarro Bro

That's a good question

Theatre Geek

Wait, how many of you don't understand the name?

Carl Azuz

I don't

Pinkberry Girl

I'm completely lost

Mythic Bitch

Idk

Sbarro Bro

Me

Lispy Bi

Me too

Theatre Geek

So only Jere, Mikey and I do?

Player Two<3

Pretty much

Theatre Geek

....

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

We broke her guys

Theatre Geek

YOU GUYS DON'T KNOW WHAT GOIN' VIRAL IS?

Sbarro Bro

Yea it's when you get famous

Theatre Geek

I have no words

I have no words for what you just fricken did

Lispy Bi

Oh boys, she brought out the cursing, we fucked up

Carl Azuz

She didn't curse?

Lispy Bi

Its the cc

Christine cursing

Theatre Geek

IT'S A CUT SONG FROM DEH WHERE JARED FINALLY GOT A SOLO AND THEY TOOK IT AWAY FROM HIM YOU UNCULTURED SWINES

Sbarro Bro

What is a swine?

Pinkberry Girl

I'm pretty sure it's a pig

Theatre Geek

THAT'S ALL YOU TOOK OUT FROM WHAT I WAS SAYING?

Lispy Bi

Chris, I've only listened to Hamilton

Pinkberry Girl

I thought you hated history

Lispy Bi

It's the fucking worst

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Hamilton is based on history...

Lispy Bi

IT IS?

Sbarro Bro

You didn't know that?

Lispy Bi

NO

To Goin' Viral Deserved Better

Did the names George Washington and Thomas Jefferson not ring a bell?

Lispy Bi

You know I thought they sounded familiar

Mythic Bitch

I can't with him anymore

Carl Azuz

Plz tell me you are joking

Lispy Bi

No I'm not

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Jake, your boyfriend is an idiot

Lispy Bi

JAKE

BACK ME UP

Sbarro Bro

Opps

Srry I'm busy

Lispy Bi

I CAN SEE YOU

Player Two<3

R.I.P Rich

Sbarro Bro

ANYWAY

My house 4:00

So that's how all that happened. I wasn't really a pool guy. I was a decent swimmer, I just hated the other aspects of swimming. I hated not being able to see much, I hated the fact that chlorine got in my eyes and I hated having to take my shirt off. That part was my least favorite. And I realized, I would have to do it in front of all my friends. That was not the ideal situation. My friends weren't horrible people. They wouldn't say anything bad but they would be thinking it. Jake, Rich and even Jeremy had pretty good builds. Ever since the SQUIP, Jeremy has been less lanky and more muscular. He still wasn't strong or anything, but he had some muscle to him. I was kinda dreading it. I wanted to go but I didn't want to embarrass myself. I would've started working out or something but it wouldn't have been enough time to show any differences. I drove to Jeremy's house to pick him up. He seemed super happy. I mean, it was a nice July afternoon so I didn't blame him. He was wearing a black t-shirt and blue shorts.

"You ready?" He asked as he sat down.

"I mean, we could just stay here. We can do anything you want and..."

Jeremy laughed.

"Come on Mikey, it's gonna be fun."

I licked my lips. I guess I wasn't getting out of this. The drive to Jake's was uneventful. Jeremy was just talking about how excited he was. Jeremy absolutely loved swimming. I never understood his fascination with it but he did. We pulled up to Jake's house and were greeted by Christine, who arrived at the same time we did. She was holding a tray.

"Hey boys! Do you like my bathing suit? It vibes me Lela from Teen Beach Movie vibes!"

Her bathing suit was a one piece dress that was red with white polka dots.

"Wow, it's really nice Chris." Jeremy commented.

I nodded in agreement. The three of us walked to Jake's backyard. There was music playing. As far as I knew, it was only our group and Jake's cousin. All I knew about her was that her name was Serenity and she was from the next town over. According to Jake, she practically begged to come over and meet all of his friends.

"Hey guys!" Brooke called out.

Her and Chloe were sitting at the edge of the pool. Brooke stood and dragged Chloe with her to say hi. Brooke was wearing a two piece bathing suit. The top was a mustard yellow and the bottoms were black with sunflowers on them. Chloe was wearing a bathing suit similar to Brooke's except hers was all black with flowers.

"Hey guys." Chloe said.

Brooke and Chloe led Christine to a table with a bunch of food on it. That left Jeremy and I standing there. I looked around at everything going on. Rich was jumping into the pool, Jenna was sitting on a chair texting away. Suddenly, a woman I didn't recognize stood in front of us.

"You must be Jake's friends. Jeremy and Michael?"

We both nodded.

"I'm Jake's aunt. It's so nice to finally meet you two."

"It's nice to meet you too." I said with a smile.

"Well, go have fun, if you two need anything, tell me alright?"

"Will do."

She quickly walked off. Jeremy and I then walked over to Jenna. She was chilling with a white bathing suit with huge tropical leaves on it.   
"Hey boys, I was waiting for you two to get here."

"Well, the party has arrived." I said dramatically and bowed in front of her.

"Oh, I'm swooning." Jenna said sarcastically.

Another girl came up to us. She looked somehow older and younger than us.

"What's up?"

"I ummm..."

"Jake didn't tell me he had such cute friends."

Jeremy and I looked at each other and then back at her.

"Hey, watch it Serenity, they are both taken." Jake mentioned.

"By who?"

I grabbed Jeremy's hand and lifted up to show her.

"Why are the cute ones always gay?" She huffed.

Before any of us could say something, she continued.

"Except for Rich."

"I heard that!" Rich called.

"I know!" Serenity called back.

"Can you not pick on my boyfriend?" Jake asked with a sigh.

"When your boyfriend stops picking on me."

"He literally didn't say anything."

Serenity shrugged.

"Then stop bullying my boyfriend."

She rolled her eyes. She walked away.

"Don't mind her. She's kinda bitchy."

"Jake..." His aunt warned.

"She is."

"I know she is but be nice to her, please."

Jake sighed but agreed. He went to go in the pool with Rich.

"Come on Mikey, let's go swimming." Jeremy urged.

I quickly grabbed a cupcake and stuffed it into my mouth. Jenna and Jeremy just stared at me in confusion. I held up my finger as I chewed on the cupcake. I swallowed it.

"Well, I just ate. Can't go in the pool for thirty minutes."

Jeremy's smile fell.

"Micah, you know that whole thing is a myth. You told me that yourself."

"Don't wanna risk it. Go swimming with Rich." I suggested.

He kept a frown on his face before turning and heading towards the pool.

"What was all that about?" Jenna asked.

I sat next to her on one of the chairs.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

She glared at me.

"Mell you know exactly what I'm talking about. Why don't you want to go swimming?"

"Why don't you want to go swimming." I retorted.

"I'm going swimming in a few minutes. Now answer my question. Can you not swim?"

"I can swim." I scoffed.

"When why don't you go?"

I sighed. She wasn't gonna let it go until I told her.

"Can you keep a secret?"

"Why do you always need to ask me that before you tell me something? Yes Mell, I can keep a secret."

"I don't wanna go swimming."

"No, really? I didn't notice." Jenna deadpanned.

"I don't wanna go swimming because everyone is going to judge me."

Jenna scrunched up her face in confusion.

"Why would anyone judge you?"

"Well... I'm not exactly... skinny."

"Neither am I, what's your point?"

I sighed.

"All the guys are like muscular, even Jeremy. They have nice bodies and well, I have this." I said as I motioned up and down.

"You don't think I feel that way? All the girls are skinny and I'm not. But I'm not gonna let that stop me from having fun."

"Jenna, you are beautiful no matter what."

"And you are handsome no matter what. Stop worrying. No one's gonna judge you. If they do, I'll kill them. We love you Mikey."

I smiled.

"You called me Mikey."

"And I hated it. Now let's go swimming Mell."

I nodded. We both stood up and walked towards the pool. I slowly took off my shirt. I heard Rich wolf whistle.

"Looking good Mell!" He shouted.

I felt my whole face burn. He was just kidding, you look bad. I reached to go grab my shirt when I heard Jake and Rich laughing. That made me want to put on my shirt even more. I turned and looked at them. Rich and Jake were standing on the outside of the pool while Jeremy was wading in the water. They were both laughing at Jeremy. His face was completely red. I slowly retracted my hands and went over to them.

"Hey Mikey." Jake and Rich chorused.

"Huh?"

"Why don't you ask Jeremy what's up?" Rich said with a laugh.

"Shut up!" Jeremy scolded as his voice cracked.

"What's up Jere? You ok?"

"Oh, I'm sure he's doing great." Jake said, trying to hold back a laugh.

"I'm literally gonna leave." Jeremy threatened.

"Oh I don't think that's the best idea." Rich countered.

"Jere, what's wrong?"

Jake and Rich kept looking at me and laughing. I was just left super confused.

"I think we should leave them to settle this."

Then they both went to the other side of the pool. I sat on the edge of the pool.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm peachy." Jeremy said, trying to sound calm.

Key word being trying. He wasn't doing a good job.

"Right."

I took off my glasses and slipped into the pool next to him. Luckily, the water wasn't really cold. Jeremy started acting weird and it worried me.

"Jere, is the SQUIP bothering you again?"

"No! No umm it's actually another problem..."

"What kind of problem?"

"Umm... an embarrassing one?" He squeaked.

I thought about what it could be. It then dawned upon me.

"Are you..."

"No! Maybe... yes. Please just don't finish that sentence."

I started laughing.

"It's not funny!"

"It's pretty funny." I commented.

"Whatever. It'll go away. Just, oh my god this is so embarrassing." He groaned.

I put my arm on his shoulder.

"Jere, it's fine. I don't blame you for not being able to handle my sexy bod." I teased.

He groaned again.

"I'm kidding. Sorry, I feel bad for laughing."

"No, it's fine. It's just... really embarrassing. I asked Jake what I should do and he just started laughing and Rich overheard and then yeah..."

"Jere, it's totally normal." I explained.

"Well I know that, just it didn't take much either."

"What was it?"

Jeremy went quiet. He mumbled something under his breath.

"You're gonna need to speak louder than that."

"It was you."

I...What?   
"You're just really attractive and wow that sounded really awkward..."

"You think so?"

"Well that was proud the weirdest way I could've worded that..."

"No I mean, you think I'm attractive?"

Jeremy looked at me as if I was crazy.

"Of course I do, why wouldn't I?"

"I mean, I don't have the best body or anything..."

"Wait, that's why you didn't wanna come swimming?"

I slowly nodded. Jeremy put his hand on my shoulder.

"Micah, I think you are perfect."

A slight smile appeared on my face.

"Thanks Jere, it means a lot coming from you."

The rest of the group came into the pool. Luckily Jeremy got rid of his...problem so everything was all good. We played some random pool games, like categories and Marco Polo. Everyone except Christine was a major troll in Marco Polo, including myself. Everything got like 20 times funnier when Christine would be it. It was either complete chaos or absolute silence. Did I feel kinda bad? A little but it was funny to watch.

"Oh come on!" Christine exclaimed.

I felt even more bad so I purposely got caught by her. It made her happy so I was satisfied.

I called out and they decided to go the silent route. I only heard Christine and I didn't want to go after her. I heard her scolding everyone which caused laughter. I kinda just randomly started flinging my arms around, hoping to get someone. I did end up getting someone. I felt my hands touch bare skin.

"Jeremy! Your boyfriend is feeling me up!"

Rich. I yanked my hand off of him and opened my eyes. Everyone started laughing so I decided to join in. I don't know what I was so worried about. I glanced at Rich and noticed a bunch of scars on him.

"Rich, where'd you get all of those?" I asked and I pointed at his scars.

Alright, maybe not the time or place to ask that question. I probably shouldn't have asked that at all. It was kinda rude.

"Oh... these? Um...SQUIP stuff. The damn thing used to shock me a lot so..."

The SQUIP shocked people? That means... I never noticed any scars from Jeremy. Maybe he didn't get shocked?

"Oh, I'm sorry. That was kinda a bad question to ask."

Rich shrugged.

"It's all good man. Putting that tic tac behind us." He said with a smile.

That smile never reached his eyes. I decided I needed to change the subject.

"Rich is it!" I called out.

This time he really smiled.

"I'm coming for you Mell!" Rich exclaimed.

I quickly swam away.

"You guys ready?" He called out.

"Yup!"

I went over to where the rest of the group happened to meet.

"You guys wanna fuck with Rich?" Jake asked.

We all nodded, even Christine. Jake motioned to the stairs of the pool. We looked at each other before nodding again. We all slowly got out of the pool, actually yelling out polo. We all spread out around the edges of the pool. Rich was getting more and more frustrated as the game went on.

"How have I not gotten anyone yet?"

We all started laughing. I looked across the pool. Jake was motioning for us to look at him. He motioned something and looked around to see if everyone understood. By the looks of it, everyone did. Jake held up 5 fingers and started to silently count down. As he put down his last finger, we all ran and jumped into the pool.

"Oh fuck you guys!" Rich exclaimed as he opened his eyes.

We all started cackling.

"Who wants food?" Jake's aunt called.

Everyone practically jumped out of the pool. There were your normal barbecue foods like hot dogs and cheeseburgers. They tasted really good. We all sat down and just hung out.

"So, how's summer?" Serenity asked.

"It's great." Rich answered simply.

"Is it bad I almost kinda miss school?" Christine asked.

We all looked at her.

"Why?"

"Well, I miss seeing you guys everyday and also the drama club! I wonder what play we are doing... NO! I wonder what musical we are doing!"

"You think that our school is gonna have a drama club still?"

"It better!"

"I hate to admit it, but drama club was actually pretty fun." Jake commented.

"Before the...you know." Brooke added.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Before what?" Serenity asked.

"So Mikey, You should join the drama club!" Brooke added, ignoring Serenity's question.

"Oh please, me? On stage?"

"I mean, you were on stage for the last performance..."

"That's different!" I reminded them.

"Even if not on stage, like tech too!"

"I mean... maybe."

The group cheered.

"Wait, what happened at the last performance?"

Everyone collectively ignored Serenity's question. It was for the best. Jake's aunt brought out a cake. The cake was really good. We spent a lot of our time just hanging out. We also facetimed Julia. She was just chilling at her uncle's house and was incredibly bored. She ranted about not being able to hang out with us during breaks and stuff. I wished she could've hung out with us but I understood where her family was coming from. Soon enough, the sun started to set. Serenity suggested a bonfire. It was a good idea. We decided to make s'mores.   
"S'mores are gross."

Everyone just looked at Serenity.

"You were the one who suggested we made a bonfire." Jake pointed out.

"Well bonfires are for more than just s'mores Jacob."

Jake visibly tensed. He didn't like when people used Jacob instead of Jake. It reminded him of his parents, or at least that's what Rich said.

"Serenity..." Jake's aunt started.

"What? I can't even call him his name now?"

I saw Rich squeeze Jake's hand. Rich looked pissed and Jake looked upset.

"I'll be back..." Jake said quickly and then went inside the house.

"I'll go get him." Rich announced and then followed after Jake.

His aunt also got up and followed them.

"He's always been a drama queen." Serenity huffed.

It then got quiet.

"He's not a drama queen."

I shot my eyes in Chloe's direction. I never thought anyone would say anything, especially not Chloe.

"I mean, he did just freak out when I called him his name."

"He has his reasons alright?"

Serenity crossed her arms.

"Oh what? You know Jake better than I do?"

"Apparently, I do." Chloe said with a smirk.

Serenity just stayed quiet. I smiled. Chloe was a good friend. Jeremy laid his head in my shoulder. I laid my head on top of his. I held onto his hand and squeezed it gently. I rubbed my thumb over the top of his hand. We continued to make our s'mores. After a while, Jake came back with Rich. He wasn't exactly happy but he was doing better. His aunt came to meet the rest of us.

"Excuse me? Ms. Dillinger?"

His aunt looked at me.

"Do you have any mosquito repellent? I get bit really badly and..."

"Why didn't you ask me sooner?" She asked with a smile.

She quickly went back into the house. I absolutely hated mosquitos with a burning passion. Well, I mean, who didn't? But for me, one little bite gets huge. Also, mosquitoes were just drawn to me for some odd reason. Like when Jeremy and I went outside last summer, he had about like 3 bites while I had like 15. And my whole part of my leg was swollen and severely itchy. Jake's aunt came back quickly with some spray. I got up and walked away from everyone else. I quickly sprayed myself and handed the repellant to Jake's aunt.

"Thank you."

She nodded before offering it to everyone else. She then offered us some sparklers, which she probably shouldn't have trusted us with. One thing I didn't know, Chloe did not like sparklers, like at all. She was scared the sparks were gonna fly back and hurt her. So when Jake handed her one, she refused. But then Rich got involved and lit it while it was still in her hand. She started flipping out on him. It caused him to laugh. She didn't want to throw it down in fear she would set something on fire so she started freaking out with it in her hands. Meanwhile, Jeremy and I were making small figure eights with ours. Jake and Rich were kinda fake jousting with them. Christine, Brooke and Jenna were all taking aesthetic pictures for their Instagrams. Soon enough, fireworks were going off. Bright explosions of colors rained in the sky. It was absolutely beautiful. Jeremy and I looked at each other. We both slowly leaned in before sharing a tender kiss on the lips. I've kissed Jeremy many times before and each time made it feel like I was floating. He pulled away.

"Wow... that was insanely gay." Jeremy said with a chuckle.

I slapped him in the arm.

"Shut up."

"Make me."

I rolled my eyes.

"Stop quoting shitty romcoms Jere."

"Are you gonna keep complaining or kiss me?"

"A strong mixture of both."

I pulled him into another kiss. Best 4th of July ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Mikey and Jenna:(


	13. Laser Tag

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically the group decides to steal Michael and Jeremy's favor dating spot.

I knew that this was gonna lead to some sort of chaos. A group of teenagers running rampant in a small area. This all started when Jeremy once again brought up the idea of laser tag. This time, he brought it up with the group. We would go over winter break which was next week. Everyone agreed almost immediately, except Julia. Julia really wanted to go but she couldn't because she was going away for winter break. She had some family to visit in California.

We had arranged this on Monday. Monday was just a boring day in and out of school so we decided why not make it fun? After laser tag, we would all go get some food from the food court. Jeremy had spent the night at my house on Sunday so I wouldn't have to go pick him up the next day. We were supposed to meet there at 12:30 but we got a little... side tracked. We were just chilling and playing video games and then Jeremy decided he wanted to make out a good 15 minutes before we had to go. The drive there was only 5 minutes so he said we had plenty of time. The thing was, neither of us were ready at all. So when Christine called us, we rushed to throw on something. I just put on a random pair of black sweatpants and my red hoodie and Jeremy threw on some random graphic tee and a pair of jeans. Then it came to our next problem.

"Hey Jere? Where are my keys?"

"Fuck, Micah I don't know!" He answered.

He searched a good five minutes to find my keys. Our friends were gonna be pissed at us. We kept searching and searching. Turns out, I threw them into a pile of clothes. By then, I had already gotten 3 calls from Jenna and 5 from Rich. We sprinted out of the house and practically jumped into my car. Jeremy started talking to someone on the phone. Considering the fact that I could hear them through the phone, I assumed it was either Rich or Jenna. Jeremy kept assuring them we were almost there. I looked over at Jeremy and realized that he looked like a complete mess. Based on that, I knew I didn't look any better. Rich or Jake weren't gonna let us live this down. I ran my hands through my hair so I could see if I could make it look the slightest bit better, but it wasn't much. I went as fast as I could without going too much over the speed limit or without running any red lights. We did get there pretty quickly. We rushed out of the car and went inside the main entrance of the mall. The laser tag place was on the other side of the mall so Jeremy and I sped walked the whole way there.

"They are gonna kill us." Jeremy mumbled.

"It's not my fault you got all needy a few minutes before we had to leave."

"Well sorry. I love my boyfriend and he's hot. What else was I supposed to do?"

"Wait until afterwards?"

"I like to live on the wildside."

"Jere you cried in the 8th grade because you forgot your homework and were scared they were gonna call you parents."

"I've changed."

"Right. When Rich and Jake give us shit for this, I'm blaming it all on you."

"Hey, it takes two to tango here buddy." Jeremy argued.

"Whatever."

We continued our walk and finally made it to the laser tag place. Christine, Jenna and Brookw were all sitting on the bench whileChloe stood against the wall. Rich and Jake were play fighting. Chloe looked absolutely pissed and I was scared of what she was gonna say.

"Hey guys." I said softly.

All their eyes shot up to look at us.

"I fucking swear. I had to wake up early on a Monday in order to get here on time and you two don't have the decency to show up on time!"

"Chloe it's not that early."

"During break, I don't wake up until at least 1."

"Anyway, what took you two so long?" Brooke cut in.

Rich and Jake started laughing.

"Can't ya tell? I mean look at em." Rich said in between laughs and guestered at us.

Chloe looked even more pissed off so Brooke put her hand on her shoulder to try to calm her down. We then went to go pay for our games. We would be playing a total of 2 games.

"Hey, sorry about Chloe, she gets mad when she's tired." Brooke said to Jeremy and I.

"It's alright, we're sorry for being late."

Brooke smiled before heading back to Chloe. For our first game, we were gonna play teams. It was Brooke and Chloe, Christine and Jenna, Rich and Jake and then Jeremy and I. The second game would be solo just to see who the "ultimate champion" was. Or at least that's how Christine worded it. The employee honestly looked so done with all of us. He knew we weren't listening to the safety video or anything. He also didn't seem to really care. I felt bad for the poor guy having to deal with us. After the video, the guy let us get on our vest. Soon enough, we were let into the arena. The moment they opened the doors, we basically all broke the rule of no running. Jeremy and I were the kings of laser tag. When you were raised on video games, it kinda just happens. Christine was an easy target. She had spunk but felt pretty bad about hitting anyone. She did, but not very often. Brooke was also a pretty easy target. It was very easy to sneak up on her and run away before she saw you. She had horrible reaction times. Jenna was decent. She honestly was only there to hang out with her friends and it showed. She could've been way better if she actually tried. That felt Chloe, Rich, Jake, Jeremy and I to be competitive. It was shocking that Chloe cared so much considering she didn't want to be there. I think any excuse Chloe had to yell at people, she would take. Jake and Rich were our main competition. Both of them were super athletic and also two of the most competitive people I've ever met. They would stop at nothing to win but Jeremy and I were the same way. We had gotten some good hits on Rich and Jake but they also got some good hits on us. I guess in the end, it was gonna be determined by who abused Christine and Brooke the most. The worker gave up trying to tell us to stop running or to stop cursing at this point.

"What the fuck Michael!" Rich screamed.

"Don't hate the player, hate the game!" I shouted back and then I heard a noise and my vest flashed off, showing I've been hit.

"That's what you get for getting my boyfriend!" Jake called.

Basically, it turned into a war zone. I ran past Christine who was sitting in the corner.

"Whatcha doing here Christine?" I asked.

"Hiding from Chloe."

"Ah, I see."

"You can get a free hit off of me if you want." Christine offered.

Without saying anything else, I shot at her target. I felt kinda bad since she was defenseless but you take what you can get. I then met up with Jeremy as the time ticked down. We got our last few hits on Brooke, Jenna and Chloe. Then the announcer went on and said the game was over. Jeremy and I rushed to see your scores.

"Fucking bullshit!" Rich exclaimed.

Jeremy and I were higher than he and Jake by a good 300 points. I laughed in their face which led to Rich punching me in the shoulder.

"I'm gonna kick your ass Mell." Rich threatened.

"Can you maybe not kill my boyfriend?" Jeremy asked.

"No promises." Rich said simply.

Our solo game started soon after. If the last game was chaotic, then I didn't know what to refer to this game as. Jenna started to get way more into it and she was hella good. She got quite a few good hits on me. Still, I was doing pretty good. It was weird to not have Jeremy on my team though. We kinda watched each other's backs and now I was on my own. I saw Jake and Rich and shot both of them. They both assumed it was Chloe so they went after her. There was lots of screaming, cursing and running. The only ones really following any sort of rules were Brooke and Christine.

"Fuck off Mell!" Jenna shouted as I got her.

I ran away before her immunity ran off. I thought I was safe but then I heard the noise. I looked down and yup, my vest turned off. I looked behind me and saw Jeremy standing in the corner.

"What the hell man?" I said but then went to stand next to him.

"Sorry Micah, but I did what I had to do."

I rolled my eyes even though I knew Jeremy couldn't see it.

"I'm having fun, it's way more fun when you don't have to play against a bunch of ten year olds."

Jeremy chuckled. I had an idea. Was it stupid? Yes. But could it work? Also yes. I put my hand on Jeremy's cheek and leaned in to kiss him. Jeremy gasped lightly. As I continued to kiss him, I started to nip at Jeremy's lip. Jeremy groaned and then released his gun and started to run his hair through my hair. This was my chance. I slowly held up my gun and shot him. Jeremy pulled away and even in the small amount of light, he looked pissed. I started to laugh and then ran away.

"What the hell Micah!" He shouted.

I kept giggling as I continued to run around the area. I knew Jeremy was kinda mad that I did that but it was his fault he got distracted. I think I just had a good strategy. The time soon ran out and I bolted to see if my work had paid off.

"You beat me by one fucking hit." Jeremy grumbled and then hit me in the shoulder.

"It's not my fault you get easily distracted." I teased.

Jeremy rolled his eyes and then slightly pouted. I give him a quick peck on the lips.

"I won!" Jenna exclaimed.

"No you didn't? Michael and I both got higher than you." Jeremy pointed out.

"Ok but y'all are like not counted here. I beat Rich and Jake and that's all that matters."

"You tricked us. We trusted you."

She shrugged and tapped her head.

"Smart thinking."

"Whatever, let's go get some food."

Everyone murmured in agreement.

We made our way to the food court. Jake dragged Rich over to Sbarro and the girls went over to Panda Express.

"Where do you wanna go?" I asked him.

"Can we go get some nacho fries?"

"Of course we can go get some nacho fries!"

Jeremy and I went and ordered food at Taco Bell. We found 2 groups of 4 seats and sat down.

"I still don't understand how you don't like tacos dude. They are literally amazing!" I ranted.

"It's not that I don't like them, they just aren't amazing."

"Who goes to TACO Bell and gets a quesadilla? A cheese one for that matter. Not even the chicken one."

"Well I do, it's not a big deal."

"It's a huge deal. It's like going to Subway and not getting a sub."

"They sell things other than subs at Subway?"

"Exactly!" I exclaimed.

"You guys do realize there are wraps at Subway right?" Jenna asked as she sat down at the table across from us.

"Who gets those?" I retorted.

"Me, that's who." Chloe said as she sat down next to Jenna.

Jeremy and I looked at each other and started giggling. I took a bite of my taco. It was Taco Bell so it was guaranteed to be amazing. I then took a sip of my strawberry slushie.

"Did you hear that..." Jenna said to the group of girls.

I didn't know who they were talking about nor did I really care. I started sipping at my slushie when I heard a familiar name.

"You mean Nicole?"

I choked on my slushie and everyone looked at me, including Jake and Rich who just came over.

"You good there Mikey?" Rich asked as he set down his food next to me.

"Oh yeah, sorry. Just went down the wrong pipe."

They all gave me a skeptical look before going back to their conversation.

"Yeah, Nicole. She's a junior too and she's hooking up with guys in college."

Jeremy and I looked at each other and our eyes widened.

"Wait, who's Nicole?" Jake asked.

"Nicole Sok? She's a junior."

"Oh her? She's got college guys?"

"Multiple!" Jenna exclaimed.

"Hey what's up with you two?" Rich asked as he pointed at Jeremy and I.

Apparently, we didn't say anything fast enough.

"What are you two hiding?" Chloe asked.

Everyone was now looking at Jeremy and I.

"Um...."

"Michael kinda dated Nicole." Jeremy blurted out.

"What?" Everyone else said at the same time.

I sunk down in my seat.

"You dated Nicole?"

"It was for three days."

"I think the bigger shock is, you had a girlfriend?"

"Yeah, I did."

The group laughed. Why did they laugh?

"The gayest of gays had a girlfriend?"

I nodded and they continued to laugh.

"Wow, you learn something new everyday." Jake mused.

Luckily, they took their attention off of me. I didn't think I would have to tell anyone that. I haven't even told my mothers about Nicole. I thought that since it was so short, it didn't matter. I mean, it still didn't matter much to me. I was completely contempt with leaving that in the past. Luckily, Jeremy didn't get mad at the mention of Nicole. I mean, I didn't see why he would but it was a possibility. I continued to eat my food while the rest of the group talked. I listened to only half of what they were saying. Jeremy and I were too busy playing footsie underneath the table.

"If one of you kicks me again, I will punch you." Rich threatened.

Jeremy and I just looked at Rich and started dying of laughter.

"We can't ever go out with either of you two. First you show up late, then you two start making out in the middle of laser tag and then you go and do this." Chloe complained.

"We didn't..." Jeremy started but Chloe cut him off.

"I saw you two so don't even act like you didn't."

I saw Jeremy's face instantly turn as red as my hoodie. I knew my face was also red from the heat I felt. I tried to block out the laughter from our friends. I guess I wasn't as slick as I thought. I wasn't trying to hide it but I wasn't really wanting to showcase it either.

"Wow, even Rich and I didn't make out in the middle of laser tag."

"Wait! Michael had his tongue down Jeremy's throat and he still won!" Rich exclaimed.

Everyone murmured in confusion of how that happened but I didn't hear it since I had my head down on the table. I felt someone start to pet my hair. I smiled, knowing it was Jeremy trying to comfort me. Man, today was just not my day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that Julia isn't here :( Also Chloe is not a morning person, spread the word.


	14. Just Some Summertime Sadness (But it's not summertime so it's just some sadness)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy and Michael have been dating for a year and Jeremy is forgetful. Also Rich is a good friend.

Jere and I had our little arguments here and there but they were resolved quickly and weren't even that big of arguments anyway. Jeremy and I were coming up to our one year anniversary and we were super excited. We had a huge date planned and everything. I was gonna go all out for Jeremy to show how much I cared about him. I had left everything I had planned a complete surprise. We were planning to spend the whole day together. I was getting ready to pick him up when I texted him.

To Player Two<3

You almost ready for me to pick you up?

It took him a few minutes to respond.

Player Two<3

Pick me up?

I'm with Jake and Rich rn

Did Jeremy... really just forget?

To Player Two<3

What's today's date Jere?

Player Two<3

idk

It's February 1st

Why do you ask?

To Player Two<3

Do you really not know?

Player Two<3

No?

It's some random day

I don't see why you care

He really did forget. I knew Jeremy could be forgetful at him, but he forgot something so important to me. Was a year just not important to him?

To Player Two<3

Nvm

Player Two<3

alright?

Talk to you later

My heart broke. He didn't even seem to care. It hurt a lot knowing he had forgotten, especially after how much thought I had put into it. I would have to call and cancel the reservations, which would cost me. I would also just have to sit and wallow in my sadness over the fact that my boyfriend didn't remember our anniversary. He cared when it was a month, but not a year. I talked to the restaurant and there goes $50. My moms seemed excited and I didn't have the heart to tell them that Jeremy had forgotten so I just went out. I went and hung out in Barnes and Nobles. The place not only had the cafe but it brought me a sense of comfort. I went to the farthest table in the corner and started sipping on my drink. I never got the hype over Starbucks but it wasn't horrible. I was reading a random book. I didn't have much interest in it but anything to distract me. How could he forget? Maybe I was being a little dramatic but it really did mean a lot.

"Micah? Whatca doing here by yourself? Don't you have your big date with Jeremy?" Julia asked as she nudged me.

Julia and I have become really good friends since the party on prom night. Her, Jenna and I commonly hung out together. I didn't expect her to get along with Jenna so well but surprisingly, their personalities worked together.

"He forgot." I said simply.

She looked pissed off.

"No fucking way. You worked so hard on everything. How could he?"

"Plus, he's hanging out with Rich and Jake."

"I'm gonna murder all three of them."

"Don't, it's not Rich and Jake's fault. It wasn't their job to remember."

"So I can murder Jeremy?"

"Why are you gonna murder Jeremy now?" Christine chimed in.

Christine and Julia started dating about two weeks ago. It took them absolutely forever to get together. With Christine's obliviousness and Julia's inability to not be completely straightforward, it was painful to watch.

"He forgot their anniversary."

Christine looked super upset.

"I'm so sorry Mikey. I can't believe he did that. How about you come hang with us?"

I shook my head.

"I don't want to intrude..."

"Come on Mikey, we don't want you to be all mopey. We can all go hang at my place." Julia suggested.

I shrugged. I guess now I had nothing better to do. I followed them with my car to Julia's house. It was a small blue house on the corner of the street. I loved the face that Julia and Christine were together but I envied anything having to do with couples right now. They were super fun to hang out with but I just wanted to be alone. Even with Christine's singing and Julia's jokes, I felt totally destroyed. I didn't want to be rude though, so I stayed. I stayed as long as I could without completely breaking down. I knew I was totally ruining the vibe with my mopiness but I couldn't help it.

"I'm gonna go." I said quietly.

Before they could say anything I left the room. The drive home was heavy and the moment I went into my room, I sobbed. Not a single message came from Jeremy the whole day. No funny video he wanted to show me, no stupid joke, not even a goodnight. Jeremy didn't care about me.

====few days later===

"Are you just gonna keep ignoring me?"

"Whatever Jere, just leave it."

"I don't get why you are so mad at me Mikey. I said I was sorry."

"It was important to me Jeremy, that's why!"

"It's not that big of a deal."

"So our relationship means nothing to you?"

"Stop putting words in my mouth."

"You gave a half assed apology and expect me to forgive you?"

"It's a stupid day Michael."

"We're done! It wasn't just a stupid day to me! I can't just be with someone who doesn't care for my feelings."

Jeremy looked at me, anger filling his face.

"Whatever. I don't care. Good luck finding someone else."

Jeremy stormed away. Now the ideal situation was that this didn't happen. But I at least didn't want this to happen in front of all of our friends but of course, luck wasn't on my side. The moment Jeremy and I started bickering, I knew that everyone was listening but they pretended not to be. But now, they didn't even hide the fact that they were listening. They all gave me a pity sorry but I couldn't handle it so I got up and left. I went to the bathroom and sat on the floor. I didn't care about how disgusting it was.

"Ya know, that wasn't the way lunch was supposed to go."

I looked up and saw Rich standing there.

"Right, not the time. I'm sorry for making plans with him on your big day."

"It's fine Rich, you didn't know."

"Still, I'm sorry you guys broke up."

I was crying at this point. I didn't even register the fact that I had broken up with him until Rich said it.

"But hey, look on the bright side, now you can go through a whole new dating pool."

I shot Rich an angry glare.

"Right, still not the time. I'm sorry, I'm bad at this kind of stuff. It's usually you giving the pep talks and I've never really done it before so umm, you have every right to be upset."

"Thanks Rich." I sniffed.

Rich sat on the floor next to me.

"When I thought of going on some dingy bathroom floor, this is not what I expected."

I shoved him and laughed, even though it sounded incredibly broken. It forced more of my tears out. Rich wrapped his arm around my shoulder and I leaned into him. I laid my head on his shoulder.

"How come we never argued?"

"We were together for like a month dude."

"I mean yeah, but you wouldn't have forgotten our anniversary."

"You have a lot of faith in me buddy. I probably would've." He said with a chuckle.

'What did you and Jake do for your anniversary?"

"Nothing special."

I looked at him.

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah, we didn't find the need to."

"Do you think I'm stupid?"

"I don't think you want me to answer that."

I looked down.

"I'm kidding Mikey." He said as he nudged me. "Of course I don't think your stupid."

"Well, do you think I'm overreacting?"

"I mean, Jeremy did say he didn't care about you guys breaking up..."

"He was just mad."

"Man, defending him even after that? You love him, don't you?"

"Of course, he's everything to me."

"There's the gross sappy shit I love to hear from you. If you love him, go get him."

"He doesn't want me. You heard him, he said he doesn't care."

"And you said he only said that because he was mad. Maybe wait until he isn't mad and then go talk to him. I know this isn't the end between you two."

"It isn't?"

"No, you guys will make it. You guys are like actually the stereotype of soulmates, you'll be fine."

"Thanks Rich."

"No problem dude, what are exes for?"

"Andddd you ruined it."

"You know, Jenna and Julia were so close to barging into here and Chloe was about to rip Jeremy to shreds. I think Christine went to go talk to him."

I nodded.

"And not to quote you or anything but he does care. He doesn't think when he's pissy."

I chuckled.

"Trust me, I know he can be a bitch sometimes."

"Definitely, but just let a few days pass, let both of you cool down and then talk it out then possibly make out, who knows?"

"I..."

"Don't act like you don't love to make out, no judgement dude."

I rolled my eyes.

"Now, grab one of the nersy tissues you carry around and wipe your face, I hate watching you cry."

"How are my tissues nerdy?" I asked as I reached into my bag.

"Steal the teacher's or use paper towels like the rest of us."

"The teacher's tissues are gone like half the time and my face is sensitive, you dick." I told him as I wiped my face.

"Whatever nerd boy..." Rich said as he stood up.

He held out his hand, offering it out to me. I would've taken it but I would've knocked him back over so I stood up myself.

"What? You too good for my hand?"

I jokingly pushed it away.

"I don't know where that's been."

He put his hand down but pulled me into a hug. I wrapped my arms around him.

"Great, now I probably got snot in my hair." Rich teased.

I rubbed my face all in Rich's hair. He laughed and pushed me away.

"Gross!" Rich exclaimed.

"Shut up."

"Do you want me to come over later? We can smoke if you want."

"Don't you have asthma?"

"Eh, yeah but who cares? I have an inhaler."

"You would be willing to fuck up your lungs for me?"

"Of course man."

"Dude, you are amazing. But no, I'll be fine. I'll just get stoned in my basement by myself. I don't want you dying or anything."

"Alright, whatever you say. But if you need some company, I'll come and risk my lungs for you. Now come on, let's go before Jenna actually walks in here and gets in trouble."

"I hate to say that wouldn't happen but it's Jenna we are talking about."

"Yeah, that girl is scary, almost as scary as Chloe."

It was nice to have people who cared. Rich and I walked out of the bathroom and went back to the group. Just like Rich had said, Christine was gone. The rest of lunch was super awkward, even if everyone pretended like nothing happened. Everyone kept sneaking glances at me and I hated it. I knew it was hard to act like nothing happened and I don't blame them for looking at me the way they did. I just wished that they didn't.

++A Few Days Pass++

It took a few days and it was honestly killing me. Day one I was about to drive to Jeremy's house and beg for him to take me back. I needed to give him space and I needed a few days to figure everything out. I saw Jeremy in the hallway and he looked like a mess. I knew I didn't look much better. Us breaking up also left our table to be less full. So neither of us were eating alone, half of our group sat with Jeremy and half of them sat with me. They made sure to state they weren't choosing sides or anything, they just wanted neither of us to be alone. It was really sweet of them. Chloe, Jenna, Julia and Rich stayed with me while Jake, Chrisitine and Brooke went with Jeremy. They said that they'd feel bad if they had the couples stay together so they decided to split them up. I had the best friends in the world but it made me feel awful. I hated the fact that they had to change their routines for me but they all said it was fine. Except for Chloe, she complained a lot about it at first but she gradually started to accept it. Maybe it was because Jenna had said something. She did whisper something to Chloe and then looked at me really quick. Chloe didn't complain after that. We didn't talk about what had happened which I appreciated more than anything. And I would still talk to Chrisitine, Jake and Brooke. It's not like they weren't my friends. I was happy that they didn't leave Jeremy alone. I knew how it felt to be left alone and I never wanted that for him. I cared about him way too much for that. Any class with him was hard. I kept looking at him in pure agony. The classes where we sat together were the worst. Especially when we got paired together to do a project. The talking done was the bare minimum, just saying what we would do and then working on it by ourselves. I was sitting on my bed scrolling through my laptop, when I heard a knock at my bedroom door.

"Come in!" I called.

I assumed it was one of my moms as it usually was. I had told them about what had happened. They were upset that I had lied to them about going out. They were also upset that I had lost $50 and told me that one of them would've gone to the restaurant with me so it wouldn't have been for nothing. They would commonly come check on me and would hug me when I cried. Sure I felt like a child but they never seemed to mind. I loved them and felt grateful that I had them.

"We need to talk."

I looked up from my computer screen and saw a red eyed Jeremy standing in the door frame. I never expected him to show up.

"How did you..."

"I walked. I couldn't do it. I couldn't not care."

Jeremy started crying more which broke my heart. I hated that I was the reason Jeremy was crying.

"Come here." I said as I set my laptop down. Jeremy slowly sat on the bed next to me. It was quiet for a few minutes before Jeremy spoke again.

"Micah, I'm so sorry. I keep being an asshole and giving shitty apologies thinking that those will make up for it. And when I said good luck on finding someone else, oh my god I prayed that you wouldn't. I didn't want to see you with anyone else."

"Jere, what you did hurt, a lot. I put a lot of work into it and for you to just forget, it hurt."

"I know, I'm awful for that. I will make it up to you, I swear. I know that I can't go back in time to fix it but I'll try to make it up to you anyway I can, that is if you'll take me back."

"Jere, I can't..."

Jeremy's face fell. He went to stand up but I stopped him.

"I can't without apologizing to you first. Just because I was hurt, I didn't have to go and hurt you too. I could've told you what was wrong in the beginning but I didn't. And I shouldn't have ignored you when you first started to ask and I shouldn't have argued with you in front of our friends. I was an asshole and I'm sorry."

Jeremy was crying a lot at this point and so was I.

"Will you please take me back?" Jeremy asked through the tears.

"I don't want anything more."

I pulled him into a hug and we continued to cry.

"You aren't an asshole." Jeremy mumbled.

"Neither are you."

We didn't make out like Rich had thought, we barely even kissed, but in that moment, it's what felt right.

"Can we please never fight like this again?"

"Yeah, never again. You looked awful." I teased.

"You didn't look much better. I wanted to give you a hug and kiss you to make you feel better and I couldn't and it was killing me."

"Same here. I just woke up, came to school, went home and cried. I didn't do like anything else."

"God, we were a mess."

I nodded and pulled him into another hug. Once again, everything felt right. My phone went off so I pulled away from the hug and looked at it. It was a text from Christine.

Theatre Geek

Hey Mikey!

To Theatre Geek

Hey Chris, what's up?

Theatre Geek

Nothing much

Now let's talk you

So did Jeremy talk to you yet?

"Who is it?" Jeremy asked.

"Christine. Did you tell her you were gonna talk to me?"

"Well, yeah."

To Theatre Geek

Yea

We are all good

Theatre Geek

So the boyf-riends are back???

To Theatre Geek

Back and better than before bby!

Theatre Geek

OMG YAY!!

IM SO HAPPY FOR YOU TWO

So does that mean I get to sit with Julia again

To Theatre Geek

Yes you geek :p

You two are cute btw

Theatre Geek

Tyyyy

Thanks for introducing us!!

To Theatre Geek

Of course

And I better be getting a mention at the wedding

Theatre Geek

Oh hush!

"I'm glad that we're together again. I missed you."

"I missed you too, you dork."

"Oh you can call me a dork and it's no biggie but when I do it is."

I rolled my eyes and smiled.

"Oh by the way, I saw you staying after in Mr. Gonzalez's class. Moved on quickly, didn't ya?" Jeremy teased.

I whacked his shoulder.

"Shut up."

"What's with you and history teachers man? First Mr. Miller and then Mr. Gonzalez."

"I will literally throw you out the window."

"Yeah yeah, give me some of your nerd tissues."

"Why does everyone call them that?" I asked as I reached over to my bedside table and pulled out my pocket tissues. I handed him the pack.

"You have a cartoon otter on them." Jeremy pointed out.

"Yeah, those are my favorite pack for my favorite person."

Jeremy rolled his eyes but I saw the blush on his face.

"Wow, you grew weak man."

"Hey! It's not my fault."

"Whatever, I wanna play something."

"Wanna play Apocalypse?"

"Of course I do. It's been forever since we played it."

"It really has been."

"Remember level 9? They made that level near impossible."

"But we beat it."

"Well yeah, because I had my player one."

Man did I love this boy. We spent a while playing video games. My moms came to check on us a few times. The smiles they had on their faces when they saw Jeremy and I together made me feel even better.

"Welcome back Jeremy." Ma said happily.

"Thanks Mrs. Mell. I'm glad to be back. I love this family."

"And we love you two Jeremy. God Michael was such a wreck without you."

"Ma!"

"What? It's true."

"Trust me, I was a wreck without him too."

Ma smiled.

"You boys are good for each other."

Jeremy and I looked at each other and smiled.

"You staying the night Jeremy?" Ma asked.

"If that's ok with you."

Ma shook her head.

"I know you did not just say that. Of course it's ok. You've only stayed over like 100,000 times."

"It's definitely more."

"Yeah, yeah it is. Goodnight boys, can you actually try to get some sleep?"

"No promises ma."

Ma crossed her arms and pursed her lips.

"Did I ever tell you guys I can't stand you?" Ma said jokingly.

Jeremy and I laughed.

"Nope, never came up."

"I love you guys."

"Love you too." Jere and I said at the same time.

Ma closed the door.

"You tired?" I asked Jeremy.

"Not even close."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I gave you sadness but they will be happier


	15. Nerds Having A Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the next day and the nerds go on a date. Also they run into a familiar person.

It was nice to know Jeremy and I were ok now. I was happy to have him back as my boyfriend. Call me dramatic but without him, there was a huge gap in my life. Even if he didn't want to get back together, I would've been satisfied as being just friends. Alright so maybe that was a lie. It would be near impossible to be just friends with him again. I absolutely loved him more than anything and I wouldn't know what to do. I slowly opened my eyes and rubbed them lightly. I felt around the nightstand for my glasses and my phone. I carefully grabbed my glasses and put them on. I then could clearly see my phone there. I unplugged it from the charger glanced at the time. 11:23 am. Jeremy was still sleeping, which wasn't shocking at all. I noticed all of my text notifications.

Carl Azuz

I can't believe I had to hear from Christine

But I'm glad you and Jeremy are good

Don't tell the others but you two are my favorite couple

Lispy Bi

Final Fucking ly dude

Did you guys make out?

No judgement

Just curious

Sbarro Bro

Hey man, congrats on making things up with Jeremy

Pinkberry Girl

I'm happy you and Jeremy worked things out

I missed sitting with you guys at lunch :(

Mythic Bitch

So I can sit with my girlfriend now?

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

What the fuck man

You tell Christine before me

I'm heartbroken

jk

But I'm proud of my children

It was nice to see my friends were happy again. You could just feel the off atmosphere before. I really had to pee but Jeremy's arms were wrapped around me. I didn't want to wake him up but he slept like the dead anyway. So I moved his arm from around my waist. I quickly went into the bathroom. I look into the mirror and notice the bags under my eyes were slightly less dark. Not very noticeable but slightly. I returned to my bed and saw that Jeremy was hugging the pillow I was just laying on. I didn't know if I wanted to wake him up yet or not. My stomach growled so I decided I would make breakfast before waking him up. Now I was a decent cook. With instructions, I was great but on my own, that was debatable. So, instead of making something complicated, I made some toaster strudels. I grabbed an apple one for me and a cinnamon one for Jeremy and popped them into the toaster. I waited a minute or two before they were finished. I slowly grabbed a plate from the cabinet above the microwave, making sure that I didn't make too much noise. I grabbed the toaster strudels from the toaster, being careful to not burn my fingers. Toasters or really any hot surfaces kinda scared me.

I once burnt my arm really bad on the stove. It was a complete accident and now I have a scar on my arm to remind me that I was an idiot once. I then proceeded to break that same arm like 3 weeks later. To be fair, I was trying to impress Jeremy. I wasn't a great bike rider, like at all. I never have been and never will be. I knew the bare minimum of bike riding in the 8th grade which was super embarrassing. What 8th grader could barely ride a bike? I learned when I was super young but then completely forgot how as I grew older. So Jeremy insisted that we take the safer path and in hindsight, I should've listened but I wanted him to think I was cool for being "dangerous." So I told him that we should ride down the steep hill. Jeremy warned me that it probably wasn't the best idea since he knew I wasn't the best bike rider but I didn't listen. I started making my way down the hill and everything was totally fine. I was having a grand old time but then a rock came out of nowhere and got stuck so I got flung off of my bike.

Luckily, I was wearing a helmet so my head didn't suffer, but I landed straight on my arm. Jeremy immediately ran to my side and tried to help me the best he could but he didn't know how. We were pretty far from our houses so Jeremy called his dad on his phone, which was one of those phones you had very limited time to use. His dad called my moms and I got rushed to the hospital. My moms surprisingly weren't mad at me for being stupid. They were more worried than anything. I remembered that I should grab something for Jeremy to drink. I went into my fridge and poured some apple juice in the cup for him and poured orange juice in a cup for me. I carefully brought up everything. I set my cup of orange juice on my side of the bed and walked over to Jeremy's side. I set down the place and juice, being careful of his classes and phone. I started to shake him lightly and I should've known that wouldn't work so I took out my phone and blared music in his ear. Was it mean? Yes but did it work? Also yes. Jeremy almost flew out of the bed.

"What the hell?" He exclaimed angrily.

"Good morning to you too." I said with a smile.

Jeremy's face softened when he looked at me.

"I made you breakfast." I told him as I grabbed the apple strudel off the plate and bit into it. Jeremy smiled before grabbing the pastry off the plate and taking a bite. We had some random conversation as we ate.

"Uh... Michael?"

I looked up at Jeremy.

"Do you maybe... wanna go... to the museum today?" He asked slowly.

"Of course dude!"

He smiled softly and then took a sip of his juice. After we finished, we decided to get ready. Jeremy had a whole bunch of clothes left at my house. After over a decade of friendship, it kinda happens. I threw on a random pair of jeans, a black t-shirt and my red hoodie.

"I haven't seen this in forever." Jeremy said randomly.

I turned to look at him and saw that he was holding up a familiar looking graphic t-shirt.

"Why does that look familiar?" I asked.

"Because you have the same one."

It was a NASA t-shirt but not like the classic looking one. It was a rocket in a golden circle with a rainbow behind it. We bought it at a science convention thing we went to in the beginning of sophomore year. Wow, we really were pretty nerdy. I mean, we were going to an art and history museum as a date. That shirt ended up being the one Jeremy wore.

"You sure you don't want a hoodie or something?"

Jeremy shook his head.

"You get cold easily Jere."

"I'll be fine."

I should've just thrown a sweater in his face and told him to wear it but I didn't. I just grabbed my keys. I went to go knock on my moms' door.

"Come in!"

I slowly opened the door.

"Goodmorning." I said softly.

"Good Morning Mikey." Ma and nanay responded.

"Jere and I are going out."

"Where are you guys going?" Ma asked.

"The art and history museum."

Both of my moms laughed.

"Wow, you guys are really nerdy."

Ma started laughing.

"I know right?" Nanay said in between chuckles.

"Alright, I get it." I huffed.

"Aw, you are just kidding anak, that's really cute."

"We won't be back until later. I'm probably gonna take him to Pinkberry too."

Both of my moms smiled before nodding. I then went back to my room and saw Jeremy sitting on my bed fiddling with his hands.

"You ready?"

He nodded. He nodded and followed me out the door.

"Is your dad gonna teach you how to drive?" I asked as I started the car.

He shrugged.

"One of my moms would take you if you wanted."

He looked at me and his eyes widened.  
"Really?"

"Yeah, dude, you're a senior in highschool and you can't drive." I reminded him.

"Christine can't drive either!"

"She's learning."

Jeremy huffed.

"Really dude, my moms would help you if your dad can't."

"You really think they would do that?"

I chuckled.

"Totally. You can't be any worse than I was."

"I totally can. I don't wanna wreck your moms' car. The only experience I have with driving is..."

"You'll be fine." I assured him.

I didn't want him to bring up SQUIP. I knew how much it hurt him. Every now and then, the SQUIP would bother him. It would tell him awful things and wouldn't go away. I hated seeing Jeremy this way. I can't imagine what it's like to have one. I wondered how much it made the others suffer. Jenna, Jake, Chloe, Brooke, Christine... and Rich. Rich had that thing infect him in sophomore year. That's when he became popular. I then remembered the Halloween party. When Rich saw me, he didn't ask me who I was or why I was there. He asked me for Mountain Dew Red. I wish I had some to give to him. I can't guarantee I would've given it to him. I mean, I didn't give it to Jeremy right away. I still can't believe I forced him to apologize at that moment. It really wasn't the time for that and it's not like he could've done much. If I would've given it to him sooner, things could've been at least a bit better. Who knows who I could've saved if I wasn't so selfish. The more I thought about it, I was selfish. After the Halloween party, I didn't even try to help Jeremy. I was so upset about how he treated me, I completely gave up on him. If Mr. Heere didn't come to my house, who knows how long everything would've gone on. I tried my best to push all of that way. Today was gonna be a good day. I wasn't gonna let anything get in the way of that. The thoughts stayed in the back of my head. I guess that was the best they could do. I pulled into the parking lot. It was almost empty, which is what I expected. It wasn't a school day so no field trip was going on and not many people enjoyed history museums in general. I don't know why, I alway loved museums. Everytime we would have a field trip to one, I was super excited. Same with zoo trips, those were awesome. In high school, we didn't really go on any trips. The only ones we would have were if you signed up with the counselor for a college trip which were super boring. We also had a senior year trip which is the trip I'm looking forward to. I hoped we were going somewhere interesting. I parked my car and we both got out. Jeremy and I walked together but it was kinda awkward. We walked to the entrance in silence which wasn't the weird part. The weird thing was, Jeremy didn't hold my hand. It was kinda a thing we didn't when we started dating that whenever we went anywhere, we would hold each other's hand. Was Jeremy still mad at me? I brushed it off, it wasn't a big deal. We walked in and were greeted by the lady at the front desk. Her name tag read "Lizzie."

"Hey guys, how are you?"

"We're good, how are you?" I responded.

She smiled brightly.

"I'm great, thanks for asking. Is it just the two of you?"

I nodded.

"Alright, that'll be $20."

I nodded and went to reach for my wallet but Jeremy stopped me. He took out his phone and grabbed some money from behind the case and handed it to the woman. She looked at the both of us and smiled. She handed us two tickets, which I later realized didn't have like any actual use. We made our way through one of the rooms.

"You didn't have to do that Jere." I said softly.

"I invited you out. It's not like our first date Michael."

I chuckled. I slowly reached for his hand but he quickly moved it. Ok, something was totally up. "What's wrong Jere?"  
"Huh?"

"You pulled your hand away."

"Oh, um I just..."

"Nevermind, it doesn't matter."

"No, it doesn. Sorry, I just didn't feel like you wanted to hold my hands."

I tipped my head to the side.

"But I reached for your hand..." I reminded him.

"Yeah, I know, I just felt like it was out of pity."

"You thought that your boyfriend wanted to hold your hand... out of pity?"

"Well when you put it like that, it sounds stupid." He said as he looked away in shame.

I grabbed both of his hands.

"Jere, look at me."

He slowly looked at me.

"It's not out of pity, it's because I love you."

"You still love me?"

Did he really think I didn't love him?

"Jere, why wouldn't I?"

He frowned.

"I forgot our anniversary."

"I forgave you Jere. I know it was an accident. We talked about this."

"I know but still, I feel awful."

I leaned in and kissed his cheek.

"Babe, it's ok. Now stop being mopey and let's go have fun. I'm taking you to Pinkberry after."

Jeremy smiled.

"Sorry I was acting dumb."

"You're fine Jeremy. Now, let's go look at some random art."

We walked around the art portion of the museum first. I never really understood modern art. I mean, the artists worked hard on it and I wasn't trying to discredit them but I never understood it. Our art teacher, Ms. Delacruz, was a kind lady. She actually made me somewhat interested in art. The problem was, I wasn't very good at it. I was pretty jealous of Jeremy since he was a fantastic artist. If I wasn't good at something, I didn't like it. Kinda a screwed up philosophy there I realize. I looked at the walls and there were all types of art. From starry nights, to birds, to portraits and even food. It was all done really nicely. Jeremy kept using art words that I didn't understand. Maybe if I paid attention in art, I would've. But when your boyfriend sits next to you when he's super tired because it's the end of the day and he wants to sleep but he's super cute looking when he's tired, it's kinda hard.

"Whoa, look at that!" Jeremy exclaimed as he pointed at something. He pulled me over to where he was pointing before I could even see it. When we stood in front of it, I was in complete awe. It was a beautiful painting of an angel. It didn't even look like a painting, that's how awesome it was.

"Wow, isn't this beautiful?"

I nodded speechlessly. I looked over at Jeremy and realized he was kinda shivering.

"Jere, are you cold?"

He turns and looks at me.

"What? No."

"Jere, you are an awful liar." I told him.

I reached to go take off my hoodie but Jere stopped me.

"Micah? What are you doing?" He squeaked.

"Taking off my hoodie?"

"But we are in public."

"I have a shirt on underneath." I reminded him.

"You wear shirts under your hoodies?"

I cackled.

"Yes Jeremy, I wear shirts under my hoodies. Have you severely never noticed?"

"No..."

I smiled and then took off my hoodie and handed it to him. He slowly slipped it on. He looked absolutely adorable wearing my hoodie. It was hard not to stare at him. We continued to walk around the gallery for a while before getting tired of looking at the art so we went to the history portion, my preferred side. Unlike the other classes, I had a constant A in class. It had nothing to do with the fact that our teacher was good-looking or anything. Alright, maybe it kinda was. I remember crying to Jeremy about how I was an awful boyfriend and that he needed to break up with me. He asked me why and I told him I was cheating on him. He looked completely torn and asked me who it was. I cried harder as I told him it was Mr. Gonzalez. Jeremy looked upset and completely dumbfounded. He asked me what happened and I told him I thought that he was good-looking and Jeremy laughed. He told me that it wasn't a big deal to him. I kinda didn't believe that since the whole SQUIP thing and I knew how it could make someone feel insecure about things like that. Jeremy assured me that it wasn't like that, at least in that case. He told me that he wasn't jealous or that it wasn't considered cheating to him. He even laughed at the fact that I did. He told me that it was basically like having a celebrity crush to him and that as long as nothing happened, it was fine. Nothing would happen, ever. It wasn't a crush even. It was kinda hard to describe properly but it wasn't a crush. I knew that and I made sure Jeremy knew that. But besides that, I found history to be very interesting. I was kinda rusty on other countries' history. I knew a decent amount about India, China and Europe. I got put in honors history which you can only do that if your last teacher suggested for you to be put into it. Basically, you just learn some college level stuff. I absolutely love to brag to my friends about it. Rich punched me one time because of it, and then I still continued to do it.

The downside to that was I had no friends in the class. I could've made some, like the people seemed pretty nice but no way. I had all the friends I could need. The work was pretty easy for me, which made me feel proud. Also, Jeremy basically forced me to help him with history all the time. He did well on the test and then would repay me with dates and such. I told him that he didn't need to do that but he told me that saving his ass from getting grounded was worth it. Jeremy's dad had gotten a lot more strict since everything happened. He was really stepping up to being a dad and I was really proud. But with that, he started focusing on Jeremy's grades. Jeremy was a pretty good student. He was a B student and was doing way better than me. I decided I really needed to step it up this year. Sure I wasn't doing bad last year only having 2 C's but I wanted to be like Jeremy and have no C's at all. Mr. Heere really wanted Jeremy to have more A's than B's on his report card, which Jeremy worked really hard for. I felt pretty bad when I would distract him when he was studying but I got bored pretty easily. I realized that if I actually tried with school, I could do well but the problem was that I didn't a lot of the time. The work was just boring, except for history. It was the only class that didn't bore me. It was ironic that Jeremy thought it was the most boring class. We both had the same teacher, they just taught at different level and Mr. Gonzalez was an interesting teacher so I didn't understand that. He claimed that he didn't care about random dead people but then I brought up the fact that he liked musicals so that also didn't make sense. He then just threw a book at me and I decided I shouldn't question it anymore. 

We walked around the exhibits hand in hand. I would spew out some random history fact every now and then. Jeremy seemed impressed so it was definitely a win in my book. It was mostly American history but there was some European too. It mentioned King Henry the Eighth and Jeremy started singing SIX. More specifically, the song Ex-Wives. During the beats in between some of the parts, he would kinda just fling his arms around randomly. I chuckled everytime he did it, which only encouraged him more. Then we got to a part that mentioned Hamilton so then he started doing songs from Hamilton. I may have recorded him doing this and sent it to Christine. She was proud to say the least. We had spent quite a decent amount of time at the museum. We ended up going through it all in an hour so then we decided to go to Pinkberry. The ride there wasn't very long. It was in a plaza of a bunch of other stores. I parked my car and Jeremy and I got out and went inside. The store was very nice and clean. We went over to the cups and each grabbed one.

"I'm gonna be adventurous today." Jeremy told me.

I quirked my eyebrow. He went over to the cookies and cream machine and poured some yogurt into his cup. I chuckled.

"Wow, real adventurous." I teased.

He stuck his tongue out at me.

"Well what are you gonna get?"

I looked at all of the options. There were many to choose from. I decided to go with pineapple.

"Ew dude, who gets pineapple fro-yo?"

"I do." I said as I walked over to the toppings bar.

I never usually put many toppings on my frozen yogurt, especially my fruit flavored ones. I usually only put one, which was the strawberry boba. Jere put Nutella in his. We paid for our cups and went to a table in the corner. We started asking each other random questions.

"If you could get anything in the world for free, what would it be and why?" I asked.

He tilted his head to the side and bit his lip while he thought.

"I would buy two tickets to Hamilton so we could go together."

I smiled.

"I was gonna say Dear Evan Hansen tickets but Hamilton tickets are like way more expensive so..."

"I get it Jere. The real villain in Hamilton is the ticket prices, prove me wrong."

He shrugged and smiled.

"Shoot, I got nothing."

We both started to laugh.

"What do you want to get in the next five years?"

I had to think a lot about this. What did I want to do in the next five years.

"Go to college and get married, preferably to you."

Jeremy's eyes widened and his whole face went red. 

"What? Too much?" I grimaced.

His eyes widened even more and he quickly reached to grab my hand.

"No, no it's not. It just caught me off guard. I... I would like that." He assured me with a small smile.

"What do you like most about yourself?"

It was kinda a random, out of the blue question but it was the first thing that came to my mind.

"Is nothing an answer?" Jeremy joked.

"Jere..." I deadpanned.

"I don't know. I don't really have anything."

I frowned. He didn't like anything about himself?

"You really don't have anything?"

"I mean.. Do you?"

"You are absolutely amazing to me. Even your flaws make you who you are. I love everything about you..."

"No, I mean about yourself."

I guess I never really thought about that before. I didn't really have an answer for him.

"I guess we both have some things to work on."

I nodded.

"Do you think that whole you can't love anyone until you love yourself thing is real?"

"I mean, not really. I love you, my friends, and my family pretty well so..."

"Yeah, I get what you mean."

We sat in silence for a while, just eating away at our frozen yogurt.

"Hey, can I try some of yours?" Jeremy asked.

I scrunched my brows together.

"Really?"

He nodded. I handed him my spoon and he dipped it into my cup. He took a small amount and tasted it. His reaction was unreadable.

"How is it?"

"It's really good... how have I not tasted this before."

I shrugged.

"Can I have some more?"

I couldn't say no to his face so I pushed the cup in his direction as he continued to eat it. He realized he finished the rest of my frozen yogurt.

"I kinda..."

I chuckled.

"Yeah, I can see that." I said as I gestured to the empty cup.

"Do you want mine?" He offered.

"Jere, you finished yours like a few minutes ago."

He looked down and noticed his empty cup.

"Oh... I'm sorry Micah."

I shook my head.

"Dude, it's alright. I'm glad you like my good taste." I said and then winked at him.

Jeremy rolled his eyes but chuckled.

"Wanna go to Hobby Lobby?" Jeremy asked.

"Why do you wanna go to Hobby Lobby?"

He shrugged.

"Alright, let's go to Hobby Lobby."

Jeremy smiled as he took both of the frozen yogurt containers and threw them away. We walked outside and I went to get into my car when Jeremy grabbed my hand.

"Let's walk there." He suggested.  
"Alright?"

We started walking and in about 5 seconds, Jeremy started singing something. It was from the Lighting Thief.

"You know, the guy who sings this song kinda looks like you."

"No way."

"Dude, I'm serious."

He started typing away at his phone and showed me a picture of the guy.

"George Salazar?"

He nodded.

"I don't see it." I said with a shrug.

"How?"

"We just don't look alike."

We walked inside the store and were greeted with the smell of crafts.

"You think Mr. Reyes is here?"

"I hope not."

We started walking around the store and just looking at the random things. We took some letter blocks and started spelling out some random words. I giggled as I spelt something. I turned and tapped on Jeremy's shoulder. He turned around and looked at the words. He smiled.

"Boyf? What does that even mean?"

We both started laughing. We continued to walk around the store. We got to a random aisle that had some random foam balls. There were also foam pieces that were cut in half. I had an excellent idea. I grabbed one of the cut in half foam balls. I put it under my shirt and adjusted it.

"Hey Jere!" I exclaimed.

He hummed and turned to look at me. He started dying of laughter the moment he looked at me.

"Who's the father?" He asked in between laughs.

I gasped in mock hurt.

"Are you assuming I cheated?"

"Well obviously you were! We've gone months without sex!"

Both Jeremy and I started laughing even harder.

"Um... I just wanted to get some poster board..."

Jeremy and I looked over and saw...

"Nicole?"

"Oh... hey Michael, long time no talk." She said and then looked at the ground.

"Yeah, it's been quite a while."

God this was awkward.

"I miss you. How about we go and grab some coffee sometime?"

Jeremy and I looked at each other. What should I say? Jeremy just shrugged.

"Um, yeah. That would be...cool."

She smiled before reaching over and grabbing one of the tester pens off the display. Without warning, she grabbed my arm and started writing on it. Jeremy and I kinda just looked at my arm in shock. She pulled away after she was done, winked at me and then walked away. I took the foam from under my shirt and put it back on the shelf.

"So that just happened..."

"She just... why didn't she just ask for your phone?"

"I... don't know."

I looked at my arm. Along with her number were a few hearts and a xoxo.

"So, are you gonna go?"

"Would you mind?"

He grabbed my hand.

"No, just, please let her know that we're dating?"

I nodded. We spent the rest of the time walking around randomly. Luckily, we didn't run into anyone else. I took him home after we were done. I decided to text Nicole.

To Nicole

Hey, It's Michael

I didn't expect her to text back for a while but surprisingly, she texted back pretty fast.

Nicole

Hey Mikey

It's ok that I call you that right?

Anyway, how've you been?

To Nicole

Yea, that's cool

I'm good, how are you?

Nicole

I'm great

Anyway, so how about coffee tomorrow afternoon?

I wanna catch up

Dunkin?

To Nicole

Sure

Nicole

How about 1?

To Nicole

I'm down

Nicole

Okie<3

See you tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Michael having a crush on his history teachers may or may not be reflecting me with a past crush on my science teacher. Also Jeremy and Michael are in a healthy relationship and are able to accept that the other can see someone is attractive but knows they won't cheat.


	16. Coffee Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael goes to hang out with Nicole but decided to keep it a secret from his mom. Panic Attack Warning

I woke up pretty late the next morning. I was gonna go make myself something to eat but then I remembered I had to go meet Nicole. I got dressed and made my way downstairs.I was trying to leave as discreetly as possible.

"Where are you going?" Ma's stern voice asked.

I was so close. I turned around and saw my mom sitting at the island. She gave me a stern look before gesturing for me to come over to her. I should've known she would've been up. It was almost 1. I licked my lips before responding.

"I'm going out with a friend for a bit."

She put her head in her hand.

"Which friend?"

Just tell her the truth.

"Jake." I said quickly.

Why would I do that?

"Oh..." Ma's face softended. "Jake's a nice boy."

"Yeah, he is." I said with a nod.

"Tell him I said hi alright?"

"Yeah, alright."

"Oh, is there anything you want from the store, I'm going to the store real quick."

"Um, just some takis."

She nodded.

"Alright, have fun."

I basically ran out of the door. I got into my car and started driving. I don't know why I lied to her. I could've just told her that I was going to meet Nicole but that would've sparked up more questions. It's not like I was sneaking around to date Nicole. I was only sneaking around to meet Nicole. There was a huge difference. I soon got to Dunkin and saw Nicole sitting in the corner. She saw me in the distance and got up. She walked over to me and pulled me into a hug. I just stood there. She pulled away and smiled. She was wearing a pair of high waisted jeans that were ripped at the knee. She had a red flannel wrapped around her waist. Her shirt was white and had one of those tie designs going down the front. She topped it off with a pair of brown combat boots.

"Go get your coffee, I'll be waiting." She said before going back to the table.

I ended up getting a frozen vanilla chai and a blueberry muffin. I made my way back to the table and sat across from Nicole.

"You got a frozen drink? You do realize it's February right?"

"Yeah, I know. I just prefer colder drinks."

"Ahh, I see. I just wanted to get to know you more. So, you're turning 18 soon, right?"

"Um, yea, in a couple weeks actually."

"Well I'm turning 17 soon."

"Oh... that's nice."

"Well not until April but that's soon enough."

I just nodded.

"Are you still into video games?"

"Yup, I still love all the things I did before. I haven't changed too much."

"Oh please. You are a lot different from 7th grade."

"I am?"

She nodded.

"Oh totally. You were like super dorky before. Now, you are less dorky. I mean yeah, you are still pretty dorky but it fits you."

"I... thanks?"

Was I supposed to take that as a compliment?

"No problem."

I guess so. We started randomly talking about things, like how school was going and our lives in general. It was a pretty normal hang out. I sipped at my tea and ate my muffin. I still had quite a lot of teas left in my cup.

"So is it ok if we just ask each other random things? I wanna get to know the new Mikey."

"Um, sure."

She smirked and twirled her hair.

"So kinda gonna hit you here with a hardball. What do you consider cheating?"

My jaw slightly dropped. Was she really asking me this?

"Umm, I mean, I'm totally ok with people talking to their friends like I wouldn't stop them from doing that but... flirting with other people I guess. I also just down right like... you know. If you don't want them to know about it, then it's probably the best you don't do it."

Her smirk grew.

"I totally agree. Anyway, your turn."

I didn't really have any clue what to ask her.

"What's your favorite color?" I asked, unsure of myself.

She deadpanned.

"Oh come on, I know you got something better than that."

"Um... when's the last time you've gotten angry?"

Nicole tapped her chin.

"I got angry when my friend, Ella, cheated off of me on a test and I got in trouble for it. Like it wasn't my fault."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's whatever. So, speaking of friends, I've seen you around with some new friends, are any of them your girlfriend?"

My eyes widened and my jaw dropped.

"I don't have a girlfriend." I sputtered out.

"Remember when we dated Mikey?"

"Uh, yeah, you broke up with me after three days."

She did something I didn't expect. She went and grabbed my hand.

I was too shocked to even move.

"How about we start over."

I yanked my hand away, almost spilling my drink.

"I have a boyfriend!" I exclaimed.

A few of the other people in the restaurant looked at me. I felt my face burn. I looked at Nicole. She didn't look mad, which was a relief.

"What?"

"I have a boyfriend."

She crossed her arms and put them on the table. She slightly tilted her head and leaned in a little.

"You do?"

I quickly nodded. She started laughing.

"No way."

I nodded again.

"Who? I asked all over this week and they said you were single."

"This week?"

"Yeah."

"My boyfriend and I were umm... we had a fight this week but we are all good now. Back together and everything."

"Who is it?"

"Jeremy."

She straightened her head and pulled back.

"Jeremy? As in the guy you were with yesterday?"

I nodded. She looked down.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know you thought this was like a date or something."

"I wrote xo on your arm." She pointed out.

"I just thought that was something you did."

She looked disappointed and I felt awful.

"I didn't mean to lead you on Nicole."

She didn't say anything. She just got up from her seat.

"It's fine Michael..." She said quietly. "I'll see you around."

She then walked out. I felt eyes on me and I just wanted to disappear. I should've told her from the beginning. I completely ruined the chance of a new friendship because I was an awful person. I slowly got up and walked outside. I got inside and drove home. I couldn't believe I just did that to such a nice girl.When I got home, I slowly opened the door. I took off my shoes and turned to go up the stairs.

"Michael."

Ma's voice. I turned and saw her standing there. Her hands were crossed.

"So, where'd you go?"

"I went out with Jake Ma."

"Oh really? You know, I went to the store and I thought I saw someone familiar. Then he came up to me. He was all like "Hi Mrs. Mell, it's nice to see you." and I was pretty confused because I thought you were out with him so I said, "Jake? Michael told me he was going out with you." And he gave me a funny look and said that he hadn't spoken to you since yesterday morning and that he was just at home. Wanna explain that to me?"

My heart was pounding out of my chest.

"I was out..."

"With who?"

"My friend Ma."

"Which one? What were you doing?"

"I...."

I couldn't get a single word out. It felt like my throat was closing.

"You can't even tell me."

I've never heard Ma sound so disappointed.

"Just go to your room Michael."

"Ma..." Was the only thing I could spit out.

"Go to your room Michael." Ma demanded before walking away.

I feel like I'm gonna puke. I walk up the stairs, feeling weak. I open the door to my room and pull out my phone. I needed Jeremy. I called him a few times and no one picked up.

To Player Two<3

Jere?

I hate to bother you but I need you

Please?

My hands start shaking as I get no response. I felt like I was being suffocated. I started to feel lightheaded. I couldn't help the tears that poured.

No one wants a liar

No one wants a burden

No one wants you

Everything would be better if you just offed yourself

No one would miss you

You're worthless

I couldn't stop myself from shaking. Maybe the voice in my head was right. I wished I would've never been born. I messed up with Nicole and my mom. Neither of them deserved it. It was all my fault they were upset. And Jeremy, no wonder he didn't want me around. I wasn't cool enough for him. I didn't try and help him hard enough. He realized that and there was no way he would want me around. He left me before, and I didn't blame him then and I don't blame him now. I didn't know how long I sat like that. I didn't even hear the door opening.

"Michael? Michael baby, it's mom, look at me."

I slowly looked at her and felt like I couldn't breathe again.

You lied to her

"Michael, focus on your breathing."

I shook my head. I couldn't do it.

"Can I touch you?"

I nodded as best as I could. She slowly grabbed my hand and rubbed her thumb over it.

"You can do it baby, just breathe with me."

She took exaggerated breaths and I tried to follow them.

"I'm proud of you, keep going."

I calmed down eventually. I was still crying. Ma pulled me into a hug.

"I'm so sorry ma." I cried into her shoulder.

"Baby, why did you lie to me?"

"I... I didn't know how to tell you."

She pulled away, concern laced her face.

"Tell me what?"

"I had a girlfriend." I blurted.

My mom didn't say anything, which made my cry harder.

"When was this?"

"7th grade." I confessed.

"So why did you lie to me about where you were going?"

"I was scared of how you were going to react."

"Why? Are you seeing her?"

"Oh god no." I cried.

"Then why?"

"Because, I felt like you were going to judge me."

My mom rubbed my back.

"Michael, that's nonsense. Why would I judge you for that?"

I shrugged. I didn't have a real reason why I thought she would judge me, I just thought she would. I was just sorta embarrassed over the fact that I got dumped for not being cool enough for someone.

"I'm sorry Mikey, I shouldn't have gotten so angry. I should've let you explain. I was just so worried you were doing something bad, I was so worried baby."

Ma was crying at this point too. She pulled me into another hug.

"Jeremy called me, he told me he was worried about you since you didn't answer him."

Jeremy called my mom?

"He said he was out with his dad and had his phone off and when he saw your message, he got scared and called you a bunch but you didn't answer. He said he would've come over but he was still out with his dad. He said he'd be coming over later." Ma explained.

"I'm sorry Ma."

"I'm sorry too baby."

Ma sat there and held me while I cried. It made me feel like a child but it helped a lot and I couldn't be more grateful. Jeremy did end up coming over and basically tackled me into a hug.

"I'm so sorry Micah. I got here as fast as I could."

I was glad to have Jeremy by my side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no actual reason Michael kept it from his moms. It was mainly bc he was embarrassed of it.


	17. Picnic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael and Jeremy go on a picnic date and Jeremy learns about Michael's secret fear.

Things between Jeremy and I have improved a lot. Things in general have just been going way better. Sure, there were some bumps in the road, like SQUIP problems, but nothing we couldn't conquer. It was a nice spring afternoon and I was incredibly bored. I felt my phone buzzing off the wall. I picked it up and smiled.

Player Two<3

MIKEY

MIKEY

MICAH  
MICHAEL  
BABE  
LOVE OF MY LIFE  
MICAH

My smile grew.

To Player Two<3

What do u want you tiny weasel?

Player Two<3

How am I a tiny weasel?

That's Rich

ANYWAY

I wanna go out

To Player Two<3

Where?

Player Two<3

idk

I thought you would have an answer

To Player Two<3

Hb....

A picnic

Player Two<3

....

That's the most romcomy thing

ABsolutely gross

So what time you picking me up?

To Player Two<3

After I go to the store, what do you want?

Player Two<3

Dude, you did not just ask me that

To Player Two<3

Fine, I'll buy your shitty Doritos

Player Two<3

I love you :)

To Player Two<3

Whatever

Get ready dork

I slipped on a pair of sweatpants and decided to wear the hoodie Jake bought me last year for my birthday. I wore it a lot more than I thought I would. It was a nice hoodie and I appreciate Jake for getting it for me. I grabbed a blanket from my closet. It was a pretty old one. It gave me a whole bunch of nostalgia. It was a Mario blanket. I remember when I begged my moms to get it for me and they did. I instantly told Jeremy and he was also pretty excited. It was pretty easy to make us excited when we were younger. Literally almost anything excited us. I then told my moms that I was leaving and that I'd be back sometime later. I just realized how lenient my parents were. I shrugged. My moms were pretty awesome. I drove to the store and picked up some things to make sandwiches. I mean like what else do you bring to a picnic? I've only been on a picnic once and that was absolutely awful. It was all fine until Jeremy and I ran into a bunch of poison ivy. That part was not very fun.

It was like over a week of itchy skin for the both of us and scolding from our parents. I then went to the chip aisle and grabbed some Cool Ranch Doritos for Jeremy and some Hot Cheetos for myself. I got us each a bottle of lemonade. As I walked down the drink aisle, I glanced at the Mountain Dew. It's been a while since I last had it and I was perfectly ok with that. It was Jeremy and I's favorite drink for a while. Then the whole SQUIP thing happened. Jeremy only drunk Mountain Dew once after that. We were both high so he didn't think much of it. It gave him an awful headache and the SQUIP started messing with him again. So, he completely stopped drinking it. I stopped drinking it with him since I didn't want him to do it alone. He seemed grateful for that and I was glad. I would do anything for him. I then quickly stopped in 7/11 to grab us each a slushie. Erika still worked behind the counter.

"Hey Michael. Here for your daily dose of slush?"

I nodded.

"I can't believe you're still working here."

"I can't leave them. What would they do without their favorite employee?" She commented sarcastically.

"So, I keep forgetting to ask, how's that whole mom situation?"

"Oh right... I got kicked out so that's fun. I'm kinda just bouncing from house to house right now. Anywhere I can stay I guess."

I frowned.

"Hey, you know, if you ever want, you could always stay with my moms and I. I'm sure they wouldn't mind."

Her sad expression turned into a smile.

"Really?"

"Yeah, of course."

"You're a good kid Michael. I'll keep that in mind."

I got a blue raspberry slushie for Jeremy and a cherry one for me. Jeremy absolutely despised cherry for some reason. He called it the "Walmart version of strawberry" and a "waste of potential." I reminded him that cherries were fruits in their own nature and he just looked at me in disgust. I decided to leave it at that point. I just didn't understand Jeremy sometimes and I didn't think I ever would. I picked up some random candy. I got M&M's for Jere and Sour Patch Kids for myself. Soon enough, I drove to Jeremy's house. He was sitting on his porch swing on his phone. I honked the horn and he jumped. I rolled down my window.

"Get it loser, we're going on a picnic!" I called out to him.

He came up to my car and flipped me off.

"I thought you were above Mean Girls references." He said as he sat down in the passenger seat.

"No one is above Mean Girls references babe." I said as I leaned over and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

He rolled his eyes and I started driving. We made our way to the park. We saw a few children running around on the playground.

"Remember when we were that young?"

"Yeah, it was just the two of then."  
"It's still us, just with some extras too."

I looked over at Jeremy.

"Yeah, after all these years, I still can't get rid of you." He joked.

His face then changed to worry.

"Oh my god Micah, I didn't mean to say that, I'm so so sorry..."

I chuckled and grabbed his hand. I softly kissed it.

"You worry too much Jere. It's alright, I know it was a joke. Stop apologizing when you did nothing wrong, you goof." I told him as I got out of the car.

I grabbed the bag of things I brought and then grabbed the blanket. I led him over to a more private part of the park. I set down the food and laid the blanket down on the ground.

"Uhhh Micah?"

I hummed.

"Why don't we just sit at the picnic tables?" He asked and the guestured over to the few tables that sat in the distance.

"This is more romantic Jeremy."

He shrugged and then sat down on the blanket next to me.

"Alright, so I got us some stuff to make sandwiches, some chips, lemonade, and some candy."

"Babe?"

"Yeah, what's up Jere."

"I thought you said you brought stuff to make sandwiches."

I wrinkled my eyebrow at him.

"I did."

"Right, and what sandwich doesn't have cheese... or bread?"

I ripped the bag from Jeremy's hand and looked inside. There were only two ziplock bags, one with turkey and the other with chicken.

"I forgot to buy bread."

Jeremy started laughing. I put my face in my hands. Jeremy rubbed my back.

"It's alright Micah, I love bagged turkey."

I giggled.

"I'm sorry Jere. This was supposed to be perfect and..."

"I'm serious Mikey, it's ok."

We both started eating away at the lunch meat. Jeremy put on some random musical for us to listen to. I then saw something that terrified me. Ok, so maybe I didn't tell Jeremy everything about me. There was only one major secret that I've kept from him. I'm absolutely terrified of insects and spiders. Well, he knew about that fear to some degree. He knew about my fear of spiders and how I would freak out if a bee came near me. The thing was, he didn't know the full extent of my fear. I felt my heartbeat quicken as it flew closer.

I shot up from where we were sitting and started screaming. I started quickly backing away.

"Micah? What the hell is going on?"

I couldn't speak, I only pointed.

"Mikey, it's a butterfly."

I nodded violently. I latched onto Jeremy.

"Are... are you scared of the butterfly?"

I nodded again, this time, feeling embarrassed. The butterfly soon flew away. I relaxed but noticed Jeremy was still looking at me.

"Micah..."

"Yes! I'm scared of butterflies! I'm a fucking scaredy cat! I bet you won't wanna be with someone who is scared of a harmless butterfly." I ranted as I sat back down on the blanket.

Jeremy came right to my side.

"Michael, I'm not gonna break up with you over your fear of butterflies."

"You aren't?"

"Dude, of course not. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it's embarrassing."

"You can't help what you're scared of. I wouldn't judge you, unless you were like scared of like a puppy or something because we are totally getting a dog."

I smiled and kissed his cheek.

"What? You scared of my lips or something?" Jeremy teased.

"Absolutely terrified."

I quickly pressed a kiss on his lips. That nice innocent kiss turned into a makeout session in the middle of a park. After a while, I pulled away.

"Jere, I love you and all but I don't wanna spend all of our day in the park making out?"

Jeremy pouted.

"Why not?"

"Because, I wanna take a walk."

Jeremy booed. I rolled my eyes and got up. I held out my hand and he took it and got up.

"Are we just gonna leave this stuff here?"

I shrugged.

"We'll be back for it. Unless you wanna carry it."

Instead of answering, Jeremy just started dragging me along. We took a slow stroll around the park.

"You know my dad wants me back eventually right?"

"Yeah, I'll bring you back, I'm just waiting for the stars. I wanna stargaze with you."

Jeremy smiled.

"Alright, I can't argue with that logic."

Soon the sun had set. Jeremy and I made our way back to the blanket. I took out the bag of Doritos and threw it at Jeremy.

"You can keep it." I told him.

He put one of his hands dramatically on his chest and the other on his forehead.

"My true love."

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my bag of hot cheetos. I opened it and started eating some.

The sunset and the stars started to come out. I laid down on the blanket and Jeremy laid his head down on my chest. I ran my fingers through his hair as we both looked up at the sky.

"How many stars do you think are in the sky?"

"I don't know Jere, more than I can count."

"I guarantee there are more than 10 stars in the sky, Mikey."

"Oh hardy har Jere."

He giggled and I couldn't help but giggle back. We sat there for a while. The sky was absolutely beautiful. I always had a thing with the stars. I was one of those kids who kinda took the horoscope thing seriously. Well, not exactly. I wasn't one of those insane people who followed it to a t but I was that person to look up and see if my crush's sign and mine were compatible. I knew that's not how relationships actually worked but it also felt like a kind of destiny thing. Luckily for me, Jeremy and I's signs were compatible. I looked it up the moment I started liking him and I jumped with joy. I realized that Jeremy's dad probably wanted him to be back home soon.

"Do you want to go back home now?"

I got no answer from Jeremy.

"Jere?"

Still no answer. I looked down at him and smiled. His eyes were closed and his breathing was slow. I knew that in a few minutes, he would start snoring. I chuckled to myself. I continued to run my hands through his hair. I eventually had to wake Jeremy up, which was not fun. I just wanted to stay there forever with Jeremy. I knew I had to get him home though. Even when he "got up," he was barely even up. I basically had to drag him to the car, which he then also fell in. I had to carry him to the door, set him down and then carry him to his room.

"Hey Michael." Mr. Heere said as he looked over at me.

"Hey Mr. Heere."

He smiled when he noticed Jeremy in my hands.

"Don't drop him."

I smiled.

"I would never Mr. Heere."

I set Jeremy on his bed and tucked him in. I pressed a kiss to his forehead. I walked back over to his door and started to walk out.

"Micah?" A soft voice called.

I turned back and looked at Jeremy.

"Goodnight, I love you."

I smiled softly.

"Goodnight, I love you too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm basically projecting onto Michael with the fear of butterflies (well all insects/spiders but still) Also Michael is a forgetful dork sometimes too.


	18. A Proposal Mayhaps?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This takes place a few years later where Michael and Jeremy have been dating a while. Michael decides he wants to propose to Jeremy. Also implied homophobia but nothing is actually said, just glances & judgmental looks.

Life went on. Sure there were hard times and finals kicked our asses but we survived. I was almost done with college for computer programming while Jeremy had graduated in graphic design. I lived with my parents for a good amount of college but since I had some money saved up from my job, I was able to get a small apartment. I did some computer programming, though when I graduated, I would be searching for larger work. I also worked at Barnes and Nobles as more of a side thing. I was waiting until I got bigger jobs in computer programming. I was actually doing pretty well for myself. I had asked Jeremy to move in with me and he agreed. Moving in with Jeremy felt almost no different. We had been together basically all of our lives. It was basically a sleepover that never ends. Jeremy, along with some small graphic designing jobs, worked at the local grocery store and I would visit him quite often. Jeremy once mentioned a coworker who he thought was flirting with him and I came in the next day and the look on her face was everything. One of Jeremy's other coworkers who I was decently friends with started dying of laughter. The coworker never hit on Jeremy again.

We were still friends with our highschool friends. We still talked pretty often. No one moved too far away, which was great. Chloe and Brooke went to Massachutes, Christine moved to New York and was still in a relationship with Julia. Julia was going to art school somewhere in Rhode Island so they worked long distance. I don't know how they made it work but they did. Jenna, Rich and Jake all decided to stay in New Jersey. Jenna moved to a different town but it wasn't super far away and she came to visit whenever she could. They said that even if it wasn't the best, they had no real reason to leave. Jake, Rich, Jeremy and I all hung out a lot. Rich surprisingly wanted to be a teacher and Jake wanted to be a doctor with athletics being on the side. No one expected that at all but it was nice to see Jake and Rich going out of their comfort zones. Jeremy and I have been together for 5 years at this point and it's been amazing. 

We were having a date today. We were going to the aquarium and I was super nervous. Today was the day I was gonna propose to him. Since Jake and Rich had already gotten married, I asked them to help me. Rich teased the hell out of me for waiting so long, which led Jake to slap in the arm. They were both happy to help though. While Jeremy was at work, I called Jake and Rich to go ring shopping with me. They gave me a lot of choices but I vetoed all of them. None of them felt right for Jeremy. I was losing all hope when Rich pointed out a gold band with some carvings. It was simple but something that seemed special.

"This... this is it."

Rich looked super confused.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I don't know... something about it just sticks out."

He shrugged.

"I just never expected that it would be me that would find the ring. Kinda thought it would be Jake."

"Well, I guess you are the ring genius." Jake said as he kissed Rich on the forehead.

So I ended up buying the ring. Sure, it cost a bit but it was worth it for Jeremy. We would have to travel an hour for the aquarium but Jeremy really wanted to go.

"Remember when we were younger and we went on vacation together?"

"We did that kinda often babe, which time are you referring to?" I asked as I got into my car.

My classic PT cruiser bit the dust a couple years ago. I kept searching for a newer model but I couldn't find one. Jeremy kept insisting that even if he loved the PT cruiser, to buy another car. I agreed but was heartbroken by it. My PT cruiser was my thing and I didn't have it anymore. I got a Chrysler. I wasn't very knowledgeable on car brands so I had no clue how good it actually would be but it worked nicely.

"That one where we went to Boston and saw the awesome aquarium there."

"Oh yeah, I remember that. You called the manta rays sea pancakes and were terrified to touch the stingrays."

"It's not my fault. They are literally called stingrays."

"Yeah yeah, and then we went to Six Flags and you chickened out of all of the roller coasters."

"I was like 10."

"Jere you did the same thing for our senior trip."

"Ok, roller coasters are scary."

"They are amazing."

He looked at me and sighed.

"I might go on a roller coaster with you the next time we go to an amusement park."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but no promises."

"I love you."

"You better, I'm willing to put my life on the line for you."

"Stop being dramatic, you won't die."

"Final destination 3 says hello."

I continued our drive. Jeremy was amazing, but he changed the song before it would finish. I don't know when he started doing it but it was pretty recent.

"Babe, why don't you just keep one song on."

"Well because I pick a song but then think of another song that I want to listen to and the cycle continues."  
"You are a weasel."

"That's an old one."

"Shut up."

Even with Jeremy continuing to change the song, it was still an amazing moment with him. This was definitely the man I wanted to marry.

"Hey Jere, so if we were to get married, what are we doing with our last names?"

He was quiet which made me terrified. Shit, I said the wrong thing. I looked over at him and he had no readable expression on his face.

"I mean, hypinating them sounds cool."

"Weird question, I know."

"No it's not that, I just never actually thought about it. I like the sound of Mell-Heere, Heere-Mell sounds weird."

I laughed. Nice to know he wasn't uncomfortable.

"So I was researching..."

"As you commonly do."

"Shut up! Anyway, so there's this tongue eating parasite called... umm I don't know how to pronounce it but anyway it latches onto the tongue of the fish and uscks away it's blood. The tongue just like falls off after that. The fish then continues to use the parasite as a tongue, isn't that cool? Well not cool but like..."

Jeremy looked absolutely horrified.

"I... I question a lot of things about you."

"What ever can you mean Jere?"

"Why?"

"Well I don't know Jere, I guess that's just their way of living..."

"I meant why do you still research that stuff?"

I shrugged.

"I don't know, it's just interesting."

Jeremy laughed.

"Man, I love you, even if you're weird."

"Weird is rad dude, live it."

"Whatever."

"Hey, wanna hear a joke?"

"Micah, I swear..."

"My wife always prefers the stairs, whereas I always like to take the elevator. I guess we are raised differently."

That dumb joke earned a snort out of him.

"Oh god that was awful."

"You still laughed."

Jeremy rolled his eyes.

We then got to the aquarium. Surprisingly, there weren't a lot of people there. I grabbed my mini book bag that I carried everywhere and got out of the car.

"You still carry that around?"

"Yes, you got it as a gift for me and I intend to use it."

Jeremy held my hand as we walked inside the place. It was a really cool looking place.

"Hello, welcome, how many?"

"Just us two."

I handed the cashier the money and he gave us the tickets.

"Thank you."

"Yup, have a good time."

We scanned our tickets in the ticket scanner and then started our journey. We first went to see the seahorsies as Jeremy called them (even being almost 22 years). It was honestly really cute to see how happy he was. The seahorses were honestly beautiful to look at. There were some baby seahorses as well. The blue light shown within the tank.

"Any facts about them?" Jere asked as he looked at the tank.

"These cuties have no teeth or stomach."

"No way." Jeremy said in awe.

"Yup, it's true. Hey, why did you assume I knew anything about them?"

"Dude you are the king of animal facts."

I lifted up Jeremy's hand and brought it to my lips. I pressed a soft kiss to his knuckles.

"Ew, that was gay."

"That sounds homophobic Jere."

"Whatever." He said and then kissed my cheek.

"Oh but that was perfectly straight?"

"No homo."

"Oh, nevermind, I take back what I said."

We both started laughing. This one lady gave us weird glances and kept trying to pull her child away. So, to annoy her, I pecked Jeremy on the lips. The lady looked absolutely disgusted with us, but luckily, she didn't say anything. She just dragged the kid away. I felt awful for the kid who had to deal with her. We then went to look at the jellyfish. Jeremy was like a little kid and it was honestly the most adorable thing in the entire world. He would keep tugging on my hoodie and told me to look at the jellyfish or basically any animal we saw. Half way through, we went to the food place and bought something to eat. I bought a burger and fries and then bought Jeremy chicken tenders and fries. Jeremy kept insisting that he could buy his own food since I already had bought the tickets but I didn't allow him. I wanted to do something nice for him. We kept goofing around as we ate. I kept trying to push down the nervous feeling. When Jeremy went to the bathroom, I had gone through my bag to make sure that the ring was still there. I had become completely paranoid since the moment I had bought it. I didn't have the money to buy him another one and I wouldn't for a while. I kept the ring box in the bag in fear of someone seeing it. Seeing the ring, I realized that I was actually gonna do this today. My heart was running a marathon in my chest.

What if he said no?

I mean, I didn't really think he would but what if he wasn't ready yet? Also what if he flat out leaves me? Again, I didn't think that would happen but it was still a possibility. I mean, based on who Jeremy is, the worst he would probably do is just tell me he wasn't ready yet and that would be the end of the discussion but I couldn't help but think that maybe I was reading the signs wrong. Every now and then, the topic of marriage would be brought up between us. Nothing was really said about it though which is what scared me. When we were hanging out with Jake and Rich, they had mentioned it. I waited to see what Jeremy would say. He got flustered and completely changed the subject. I didn't know why he did but I guess he was just caught off guard. 

But one time pretty recently, the talk had come up again. This time, it actually went on for a while and he seemed happy. He didn't change the subject and seemed happy to talk about our future. I really hoped that's how Jeremy still felt. If he said he wasn't ready, I would wait. I just hoped he didn't dump me. Rich and Jake were pretty confident that he wouldn't say no which was a good sign. I also met up with Jenna and asked her opinion. The gist of what she said was that I was an idiot for thinking that he would say no. She "said that with love." Her words, not mine. I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Jeremy. I had already spent so much time with him, I wanted more. I knew Jeremy was the one, I had no doubt in my mind. I just hoped he saw things the same way. I saw Jeremy start to come back towards the table so I zipped up my bag and put it aside. Jeremy slid into the booth and smiled.

"You ready? I wanna go see turtles!" Jeremy exclaimed.

I giggled.

"Of course you dork."

And that's how we spent our time at the aquarium. It was Jeremy being super excited to see the animals and ragging me along. I would spew some random fact I remembered about the animal. Jeremy doesn't know this but when he wasn't looking, I would search up some quick facts just to try to impress him. I would love in love with him all over again each time he would smile and call me smart. I just loved feeling like I knew things, even if I didn't know them at first. He didn't need to know that. I took any opportunity to take pictures of Jere, I couldn't help that he was so adorable. There was a stingray petting thing towards the end of the aquarium.

"Micah, I'm kinda scared."

"Dude, why?" I asked with a chuckle.

"What if it stings me?"

"Just, don't bother it."

"It's kinda hard not to bother it if you are touching it."

"Jere, you don't have to."

"But I kinda want to."

"Here, follow my lead babe."

I held out my two fingers and slowly put my finger into the water. I gently started to pet the stingray. I decided to fuck with Jeremy a bit so I ripped my winter out of the water and started pretending to be in pain.

"Oh my god babe! Shit, are you ok?" Jeremy squealed. " I'm gonna go get a worker..."

I started laughing and Jeremy looked really confused. His jaw then dropped and he didn't look amused. He punched me in the shoulder.

"You dick! I thought it stung you!"

I laughed.

"It's not funny."

Jeremy pouted and I immediately felt bad. I pulled him into a hug and kissed his cheek. Instead of smiling, he kept the pout on his face so I peppered his face in kisses.

"Stop that." Jeremy said and pushed me away.

He looked really upset. I fucked up. I made him upset. I'm an awful boyfriend.

"Jere I'm sorry, it was only supposed to be a stupid joke..." As I started rambling, I noticed Jeremy trying to hide a smile. He couldn't do it anymore and he started giggling.

"You jerk! You made me think you were mad."

He stuck out his tongue.

"Payback's a bitch Micah."

I realized that we only had one more part of the aquarium next and I was completely terrified. I knew I had to do this. If I didn't do it now, I would be too scared to do it forever. I prayed that there would be a small number of people going through the exhibit. If he said no, there would be less embarrassment and it would just feel more meaningful. We followed the ramp down to a tunnel. The tunnel was surrounded by glass. There were many different kinds of fish that swam within the tank. The plants and the different kinds of fish made all of it super colorful. Jeremy looked completely dazed. He was in his own little world as he watched the fish swim. The lights within the tunnel seemed like they were shining on Jeremy. In that moment, Jeremy was all that mattered to me. While he was dazed, I reached into my bag and grabbed the ring box. I zipped up my bag and put the ring box in my pocket. I walked behind Jeremy and wrapped my arms around him. I laid my head on top of his shoulder.

"This is beautiful, thank you for taking me."

"Of course."

I slowly let go of him and took a deep breath. I guess I was doing this.

"Hey Jere?"

He turned around and looked at me.

"What's up Mikey?"

I took another breath before starting.

"I love you more than anything..."

"I love you too Micah."

"I'm not done."

"Done with what?"

"We've known each other for like 17 years. I literally don't remember a single thing in my life before I met you. I remember when I first started liking you and I thought I was going insane or something. I love everything about you. Your laugh? Flawless. Your dorkiness? Perfect. Everything about you makes me so happy. My have stolen my heart Jeremy, and I never want it back. You're not only my boyfriend, but my best friend. I can't imagine my life without you. I don't even want to think what my life would be without you, so Jeremy..."

I reached into my pocket and grabbed the ring. My hands were shaking terribly as I kneeled down onto one knee. I opened the box and smiled at Jeremy.

"Will you marry me?"

Jeremy had his face in his hands and he was crying. He nodded and kept on nodding. I got up and pulled Jeremy into a hug. He sobbed into my shoulder.

"I love you." He sobbed.

"I love you too baby."

He pulled away and looked at me and broke into tears again but he was smiling. If you told me life 6 years ago, I'd be getting married to Jeremy, I would've told you that you were crazy. I would've told you that dreams like that just don't come true. To whoever said that highschool relationships don't work out, just look at us now. Rich and Jake were also a good example of those people being wrong.

"Do you have any tissues?" Jere sniffed.

"Oh so my tissues are nerdy until they become a convenience to you."

"They will always be nerdy Micah."

"Whatever."

I went to go reach in my bag but I realized I was still holding the rongbox and never gave Jeremy the ring.

"Oh, umm, did you want the ring?" I asked awkwardly.

Jeremy's laugh started out as a chuckle then turned to full out laughing.

"I mean, it would be nice." He said through the laughter.

I grabbed his hand and slipped the ring on Jeremy's finger.

"Sorry, I'm emotional." Jeremy said softly.

"It's ok, I'm really happy."

"Me too, so are you gonna give me those tissues or..."

"Oh right."

I reached into my bag and grabbed the tissues. I gave them to Jeremy. After he dried his eyes, I pulled him into another hug. Over Jeremy's shoulder, I saw the same lady from before. She had the same judgemental look over her face.

"Oh can it Janis." I said loud enough she could hear.

Jeremy pulled away and looked in the direction where I was looking. The lady's face was priceless. She said nothing and then walked away. Jeremy smiled.

"That was kinda mean Micah."

"She was judging us."

"Oh, well she deserved it."

"Yeah baby, I know."

We walked into the gift shop, hand in hand. Jeremy offered to buy me a small stuffed penguin. I told him he didn't need to but he bought it anyway. He said that I had spent way too much money on him and how it was the least he can do. I named the penguin Bob after Bob Marley. Jeremy continued to call me a dork. He also took a picture of our hands and showed off the ring I bought him. We decided to tell our friends about the engagement before posting it on social media. If Christine didn't find out directly from us, she would drive all the way back to kick us. So I decided to text each of our friends individually.

To Carl Azuz

JENNAAAAA

JENNA

J

ROLANN

RO  
J RO RO

Carl Azuz

Whatever you are gonna say better be important

To Carl Azuz

Don't tell the others yet, I'll tell them but I wanted to tell you first

Carl Azuz

Tell me what?

To Carl Azuz

Me and Jeremy are no longer boyfriends

Carl Azuz

Omg

Mikey I'm so sorry

Are you ok?

Want me to drive over there?

I literally will if you want me to

To Carl Azuz

No need

We aren't boyfriends anymore

We are FIANCES

Carl Azuz

Michael

Earnest

Mell

I

Will

Literally

Kill

You

YOU SCARED ME

I'm like super happy for you

But you made me feel things Mell

To Carl Azuz

I'm sorry :(

Maybe I shouldn't tell the others like that?

Carl Azuz

You think?

To Lispy Bi

Achievement unlocked: Engaged

Lispy Bi

HOLY SHIT DUDE

CONGRATS

I better be the best man or I will hurt you

:)

To Lispy Bi

Well jeez

I was gonna pick you but now I feel threatened

To Lispy Bi

I'm gonna go tell your husband now

Lispy Bi

Opps?

To Lispy Bi

bhdbdvbisusv

RICH!

Lispy Bi

Sorry?

To Lispy Bi

I hope you know I just sighed

Lispy Bi

Yeah

I know

Sbarro Bro

Aye man, congrats. Sorry Rich told me but I'm happy for you two

To Sbarro Bro

Thanks man

To Theatre Geek

Hey Chris

Theatre Geek

Hey Mikey!

To Theatre Geek

So I got some news..

Theatre Geek

Spill it!!

To Theatre Geek

The boyf-riends

Turned into the fian-ces

Alright that didn't exactly work but the point still stands

Theatre Geek

JUISIUHUIHFUIUIEHF

OMGGG

PLZ TELL ME YOU AREN'T PULLING AN EVAN ON ME

IF YOU ARE I"M COMING TO NEW JERSEY AND YOUR KNEECAPS ARE GONE

To Theatre Geek

Jeez, hostile but no jokes!

I'm gonna go spam Jeremy now

But CONGRATS<333333

To Theatre Geek

Thank you<3

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Get on your fancy shoes

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

???

Are u drunk?

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Nope

In like 10 months? IDK how long but you are gonna have to go to a wedding

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Whos?

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Mine bitch

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Jeremy is gonna marry you?

Oof tell Jeremy I'm sorry

R.I.P

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

HEY!

Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

But congrats<3

To Bathtub Hayley Kiyoko

Thank youuuu

To Pinkberry Girl

So I may have gone and done a thing

Pinkberry Girl

?

That's concerning

To Pinkberry Girl

Don't be concerned

I'M GETTING MARRIED

Don't tell Chloe yet

Pinkberry Girl

OMG SHUT UP

YOU'RE LYING

I mean i hope not but

To Pinkberry Girl

No lies :)))

Pinkberry Girl

YAYYAYAYAYA

IM SO HAPPY FOR YOU TWO

To Pinkberry Girl

TYYY

Mythic Bitch

Brooke mentioned something happened to you but wouldn't tell me what

Are you like dying or something?

I mean I hope not for two reasons

One, I actually care for you and two Brooke seemed happy

To Mythic Bitch

I'm engaged

Mythic Bitch

That was not what I was expecting but cool

To Mythic Bitch

Thanks

To Nanay

Can I call you?

Nanay

Yes, why? Are you ok?

To Nanay

Yeah, I just wanna talk

My phone started ringing and I answered it.

"Hey baby, how are you doing?"

"I'm good, how are you and ma."

"We are good, so, what did you wanna talk about?"

"Is ma there?"

"Yeah, she's in the office, why?"

"Can you get her?"

There was hushed voices and russling going on over the phone.

"What's up Mikey?" Ma asked.

"Is the phone on speaker?"

"No baby."

"Can you put it on speaker, I wanna talk to both of you."

"Mikey baby, what's wrong. You're acting weird." That was Nanay alright.

"Nothing's wrong. I just have something to say... Jeremy..."

"Is he ok?"

"Yes, Jeremy is ok. Jeremy and I are actually engaged."

Cue the super loud screaming.

"OH MY! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!"

"About time."

"Yeah yeah, I know."

I continued to listen as my moms gushed for a while. When Jeremy walked into the room, they made him stay and they gushed to him. He kept looking at me and kept trying not to laugh. I mouthed sorry to him about 50 times and each time he just shook his head and continued to smile. Once my moms finally got off the phone, we then posted our engagement photo on our instagrams. Our friends were super supportive on our posts. We spent the rest of the day watching movies and cuddling (also making out but we don't need to mention that.) I can't believe that I was getting married to the man of my dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kinda forgot how time works so I'm sorry for inaccuracy.


	19. Wedding Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The wedding is finally here! Jeremy's mom/a lot of his family on his mom's side is homophobic :(

All the wedding planning seemed like a complete and utter blur. It felt like the shortest amount of time but also felt like forever at the same time. Our wedding was gonna be pretty small. It was only really our friends and family. Well, a lot of my family. A portion of my family lived in the Philippines and even if some of them could come, not all of them could. I was ok with that. I wish they could've come but I understood. I saw the heartbreak on his face when he got no sign his mother would come. A few days after the RSVP, he got a call from his dad. His dad had told him that his mother called him and said some horrible things to not only his dad but also about Jeremy and I in general. The worst thing is, his mother claimed Jeremy was no longer his son. Mr. Heere felt awful for telling him but he deserved to know. He didn't want Jeremy to have to deal with her incase he tried to reach out to her. I held Jeremy while he cried. I felt absolutely horrible for him. I have never been more grateful for such a great and supportive family. I knew people like that existed and it was awful. Rich didn't even tell his dad he had a boyfriend until he had already moved out. He was terrified of what his face was going to do and say. I didn't want Rich to be right. I wanted him to be completely wrong about the fear but as horrible as it was, he was right. Rich no longer really had any immediate family. His mother passed away when he was young and his dad disowned him. I told Rich he would always be family to me and my family and he cried and hugged me. He thanked me about 1,000 times. Watching him cry made me cry.

When he bullied Jeremy and I, I never got to see what Rich was going through. When I was dating Rich, he rarely invited me over. He would always ask to come over. I never minded. I liked hanging out with Rich. I've met his dad one time. I was gonna introduce myself as Rich's boyfriend because I assumed he already knew. Before I could get the words out, Rich interrupted me and called me his friend. His dad gave me a weird look but I didn't think anything of it. He later gave me a very vague answer of why. He never brought it up again. Now that it was kinda out in the open, he talked about it sometimes. I didn't ask him about though after seeing how much it hurt him. At least Rich had people in his life now. Jake's aunt and her boyfriend also told Rich that he was family to them. Jake's parents never came back. He never really got much word from his parents since they left. Even after they promised him they would come to his wedding, they didn't. Even if they played it off well, I knew how badly they were really hurting. 

Rich and Jake were still happy together regardless. I really admired that. I never could imagine what it would be like to have a family like that. It was nice to hear that not all of Jeremy's family on his mom's side hated him. His aunt Linda and his little cousin Brian still cared for him. Everyone else on his mom's side though either forgot he existed or pretended they forgot he existed. Jeremy was part of my family and even though it wasn't the same, he was contempt with that. His dad's side of the family was super supportive though. All of them had said they were coming which made Jeremy feel better. As time passed, my heart was going crazy but I was super excited.

"Michael, stop sweating so much." Rich complained as he grabbed a towel and handed it to me.

"It's not my fault I'm nervous. You were nervous for your wedding too."

"Well I didn't sweat so badly that I could fill an olympic pool."

"Whatever."

"Leave the child alone Rich."

"I'm older than him, in fact, I'm older than you too!"

"Hush Mell."

Jenna, Chloe and Julia were my groomsmaids and Rich was my best man. The girls were wearing matching dresses. There was light gray lace for the top with tan fabric that could be seen underneath. The skirts were long and light gray. They had a long slit in them. Julia looked at Jenna and Chloe like they were crazy when they picked it out. She only agreed because she didn't want to be that one person who causes issues. She looked amazing in it though, really all three of them did. Surprisingly, Rich actually dressed up for this. I wouldn't have minded if he pulled a junior prom moment as long as he showed up on time. He showed up nicely dressed and even a little early which I gave him major props for. Rich's suit was simple. It was a black vest with a white collared shirt underneath. He was wearing black pants and black dress shoes. It was nice to see Rich dressed up considering he did it so rarely. I couldn't have asked for better people to be on my wedding court. They were all super helpful, even Rich. Even when he teased me every two minutes for being nervous. They were also my close friends.

"You are gonna be fine Michael."

"Yeah, I know."

"To be fair, he's doing better of the two."  
Jenna, Rich and Julia all looked at Chloe.

"What? I had to go talk to Brooke about something really quick and I saw him. The kid was a sobbing mess. Everyone over there was too comforting and not slapping any sense into him."

"Chloe did you slap my fiance?"

"Not exactly."

I didn't even know how to respond to her at that point.

"Guys, we gotta hurry this up."

We rushed as much as we could. I took one last look at myself in the mirror. I had a white button up that was pretty covered by my light gray vest. On top of that, was a black blazer. A light gray tie hung nicely around my neck. My dress pants were also black. I put on black dress shoes to match. My hair was gelled up and despite the protests, my glasses were on. I was then ushered to the altar. Wow, I didn't realize we invited so many people. Alright, to be fair there weren't a lot of people, but it seemed like it. Everyone was staring at me. Jeremy's best man and groomsmaids were standing on the other side. Christine and Brooke were wearing long, flowy, black off the shoulder dresses. Jake had on a white button up and a black vest. The vest had a white outline on it. He had on a black blazer, black pants and brown shoes. To top it off, his tie had silver and black lines going across it.

"Don't worry man, you'll be fine." Rich whispered to me.

I nodded. This was the day I've been waiting for. I've wanted this for years. The music started and everything else that seemed to be happening died down. My little cousin Reyna was the flower girl. She begged and begged. Little did she know that she was already the person I wanted to be my flower girl. She was 10 and she was one of the sweetest girls ever. My aunt Imelda would always bring Reyna over. She absolutely adored Jeremy. Even when we were younger. She would always ask where Jeremy was. When she found out Jeremy and I were dating, she was ecstatic and when she found out Jeremy and I were getting married, it was even better. Soon enough, the doors opened. I caught sight of Mr. Heere first. He's gotten much better and so much happier since the SQUIP incident happened. Him and Jeremy weren't very close before it but now, they were. Jeremy would be upset because he wanted his dad to move on from his mother. He didn't care how he did it, but he hated seeing his dad going through all that.

Then, I saw him.

My heart stopped. Everyone turned and looked at him. I mean, I totally get why. Even from where I was standing, he was breath-taking. I knew that my eyes were filling with tears, but I couldn't help it. I have never been so happy. I just wanted everything to go by super quickly so I could just be married to him already, but of course, time felt like it was standing still. Jeremy and I never broke eye contact. He was smiling brightly the whole time. As he walked down the aisle, I noticed his dad was whispering something to him. Jeremy smiled and nodded. Jeremy's smile was my favorite thing about him. Sure, I loved absolutely everything about him (Even when he snores super loudly) but his smile was just so innocent. I loved seeing Jeremy happy more than anything. 

As Jeremy got closer, I realized he in fact has been crying. As he stepped closer, more tears would fall. I couldn't stop crying or smiling. The moment Jeremy was in my reach, I reached out to him. His dad smiled and sat next to my moms. I wrapped my arms around Jeremy and held onto him. I felt completely at ease. Jeremy was shaking, so I rubbed my hands up and down his back. That was a sure way to calm him down. Soon enough, I pulled away. I kept Jeremy's hands in mine. Nothing else really mattered to me at that point except Jeremy.

"We are gathered here today to celebrate an entire life of moments, and to bring together the two that created their own life together from the moment they met," the officiant spoke.

I was barely listening to the guy. I was way too busy staring at Jeremy for that. We were about to be married. This was a huge moment in our lives that we would never forget. Soon, we would move into our first actual house together. We would then probably get a dog since neither Jeremy or I were cat people. And soon enough, Jeremy and I would have kids. That was probably the part I was the most excited for. I wanted a family with Jeremy and I didn't care how I would have to get it. The priest then told us it was time for our vows. Jeremy went first.

"I know I'm not the definition of perfect guy. I stammer a lot, I can be annoying at times, I don't always think before I do things and I'm kinda awful at apologizing. But, you won't be able to find someone who loves you more than I do. Michael, we've been friends forever. You were my first and only friend for the majority of my life. I honestly don't know what I would do without you. I mean, I already thought I was a wreck but without you, I don't think anyone wants to see that..."

Cue some giggles from the crowd.

"You have changed me in so many ways. You've made me more confident, you've made me more outgoing and you just overall made me a better person. You are pretty weird sometimes, no more like 90% of the time but that's what I love about you. You don't let anyone tell you can't do something once you put your mind to it, hence why you licked that swing in the 7th grade..."

Even more laughter.

"I would do anything just to see you happy. I would give up anything for you Micah. You mean more than any amount of words can express. I will love you forever."

There was no way I could hide. I was crying now. I knew Jeremy loved me based on how he acted but hearing him saying just made it feel real. I tightened the grip I had on Jeremy's hand. I took a deep breath before speaking.

"Jeremiah Heere, I don't know how to start this off. Well, umm, you are the most beautiful boy I've ever seen. You somehow even beat Ben Platt in my eyes and I didn't think that was possible..."

Jeremy laughed so that was a total win in my book.

"You kinda went over most of my points thanks for stealing my spotlight..."

The whole audience started laughing.

"So, I'm just gonna tell a small story. In the 7th grade, I started noticing small things about you. How your voice would crack when you got super excited over something, how you would draw all over your notes, how you would fall asleep in class. I didn't exactly know why I just now started noticing these things and it took me a while to accept that I definitely had a crush on you. I never had an actual crush before you so I didn't know what to expect. When you told me about your random crushes here and there, I would be upset because I wanted to be the one you had a crush on. That double date we went on, that one in junior year, we were dating other people. But the whole time, it felt like it was just us on a date. I didn't know how much longer I could've gone on pretending that I only liked you as a friend.And then two weeks later, you told me you wanted to try dating. I was so excited because I was crazy about you. Yeah, we've had our ups and downs but you have always been there for me. There is no one else in the world that I want to be with. I love you so much."

Tears poured down Jeremy's face. His smile grew larger. I wanted to pull him into a kiss but it wasn't time for that yet. The ceremony continued but I didn't listen to any of it. I was too focused on Jeremy.

"Can we please have the rings?"

Jeremy's little cousin Brian runs up and hands over the rings. Brian was a shy kid. Kinda reminds me of young Jeremy.

"Michael, as you place the ring on the groom's finger, please repeat after me:

I groom, take thee, groom to be my husband. To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, in joy and sorrow, and I promise my love to you. And with this ring,I take you as my husband for as long as we both shall live."

I repeated what she said.

"Jeremiah, as you place the ring on the groom's finger, please repeat after me:

I groom, take thee, groom to be my husband. To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, in joy and sorrow, and I promise my love to you. And with this ring,I take you as my husband for as long as we both shall live."

He repeated what she said. We then exchanged rings. I felt my heartbeat quickening.

"Jeremiah Heere, do you take Michael Mell to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

It was pretty weird to hear other people refer to Jeremy as Jeremiah. I only did it when I was being serious or wanted to jokingly piss him off.

"I do." He said.

My smile grew. We were so close to officially being husbands.

"And Michael Mell, do you take Jeremy Heere to be your lawfully wedded husband?" The officiant asked once again.

"Hell yeah I do," Michael smirked, their friends and family laughing in response.

If anything else was said, I didn't hear. I was too busy smiling. It was so close to being official.

"You may now kiss your groom," the officiant announced with a cheer as the guests joined in.

She didn't have to tell me twice. I pulled Jeremy into a kiss. It was way different than any of our other kisses. It was the most perfect kiss in the world. I could faintly hear lots of cheering. Our lips parted and I smiled brightly at my husband. Wow, that felt awesome to say. Jeremy grabbed my hand and pulled me. We both ran back down the aisle together. Our families laughed at our antics. We made our way to the reception. Now I've only been to a few weddings before, so I had only a vague idea of what happened here. I knew that this was a time for pictures so Brooke's sister led us to this beautiful area right outside the building. We had taken some pictures of just the two of us and then we got some group pictures with our friends and family. After that, we sat down and got some dinner. We had been completely uneducated on wedding stuff so our wedding planner Sally was the absolute best. She knew all the best venues and caterers. Then it was time for the speeches. We decided that anyone would do our speeches, it would be Christine and Rich. Christine was an angel and would do nothing to embarrass us, while Rich would make things interesting. We had Christine go first.

"Hello everyone, I'm Christine Canigula. I'm the absolute best friend of Jeremy, Michael, move, you've been bested."

There was laughter that could be heard from throughout the crowd.

"Anyway, so you are probably wondering who I am and why I'm up here. Well, I've known Jeremy and Michael since the 7th grade, though I didn't really talk to either of them until junior year. I started talking to Jeremy when he signed up for our school's play. We became friends and even briefly dated. When I started dating Jeremy, you couldn't just not meet Michael. The two were basically and still are inseparable. Sometimes Jeremy would even cancel our dates to be there for Micahael. I then noticed how he would always bring up Michael. It was Michael this and Michael that. It was honestly really sweet to watch. On the double date Michael referred to earlier, you could see how much they actually liked each other. I made the best decision of my life that night, I dumped Jeremy..."

The crowd roared with laughter.

"Ok, that sounded mean, but I knew that Jeremy wasn't truly happy with me. I wasn't heartbroken or anything. I just wanted what was best for him. Now, I'm standing here, talking at their wedding. I think that I did a good job. Jeremy, you are such a sweet guy. You would do anything to help the people you care about and you are honestly amazing. Also you are my musical buddy so bonus points there. And Michael, sweet Michael, you are literally one of the nicest people I've ever met. Even when you knew Jeremy liked me, you still stayed by his side and helped him which not everyone could do. I love you guys both and I can't wait to see what the future holds for you guys. Congratulations."

The applause could be heard throughout the whole room. I was happy Chrisitine was so ok with speaking at our wedding. She also had no bitter feelings towards me or Jeremy which was honestly so amazing of her. Then Rich stepped on the stage and all the fear of embarrassment came to me. Rich was smirking so I knew my nervousness was valid.

"Wow Christine, that was so sweet of you, now I'm here to ruin all of that..."

I had a feeling a lot of what Rich was gonna say would cause laughter.

"So if you don't know, I'm Rich, Rich Goranski. So basically, Jake, my husband, right over there..." Rich said and pointed at Jake.

Jake awkwardly waved.

"So basically he read over my speech and was like "I don't know if you should say that babe." And I responded with "I think it's fine." But then I remembered that there would be children here so I guess I gotta be a little more respectful. And I asked Michael if there was anything that I shouldn't say and he said no so this is basically on him. So basically, I bullied the hell out of Jeremy and Michael sophomore and the beginning of junior year. I was pretty awful and thought they were easy targets. I mean, look at em, Michael was too nice to do anything and Jeremy... well he's Jeremy. But after a big thing that happened, I realized that maybe I should stop being a jerk and be nice so I did. I started having a crush on Michael which I look back at and I ask myself, why did I do that to myself?"

Chuckles. That's all I can say.

"Anyway, so one day, I went to his locker and I asked him out and the poor boy looked around and asked if I was really talking to him. I said "Well obviously you big dummy" Not actually my words but close enough. So we went to this nerdy science museum and I literally wanted to stab myself. It was nice seeing him happy though so I dealt with it. Sometimes, Michael would invite me to hang out with him and Jeremy and oh my god was it the worst third wheeling ever. And then there's the infamous double date. Christine suggested it so we could not only be with our friends but get closer as a couple, I don't know, ask her. But boy did that go well." Rich said sarcastically.

" I was basically sitting there screaming for them to kiss already but then I realized that I was dating Michael so... Anyway, I broke up with him. I then had to keep hearing Michael's gay panics, and trust me, there were a lot. I have some examples. "Jeremy is literally the cutest, like I can't even think straight around him." Bold of you to think you could think straight anyway..."

I put my head in my hands in embarrassment. Jeremy just rubbed my back.

"There was, "Jeremy is literally the nicest person ever like he bought me this keychain that I vaguely mentioned on the phone." Like I don't know how they didn't get together sooner. There was... wait nevermind, I don't think this one is very family-friendly..."

I squeaked and I felt everyone's eyes on me.

"Anyway, I'm getting carried away. So basically these two, are the grossest cute couple in the world. Like PDA is basically what they live for. But I am really happy for them. Jere, you deserve nothing but the best, I don't know why Michael is the one you went to but... I'm only kidding. I love you guys both and if I'm not the uncle of your children, I will do something. I'm not sure what yet, but I will. Have a good time everyone!"

There was even louder cheering for Rich and that was terrifying. After we ate, it was time for our first dance. We made our big entrance into the room and everyone was super happy. It had taken a while in order to decide our first song. But I was happy with the song we chose. It not only meant a lot to us, but it was an amazing song.

I don't need you to sell me on reasons to want you

I don't need you to search for the proof that I should

You don't have to convince me

You don't have to be scared you're not enough

'Cause what we've got going is good

Jere and I swayed slowly to the music. I was holding my whole world in my arms and I couldn't ask for anything better. Actually, scratch that, there was nothing better.

I don't need more reminders of all that's been broken

I don't need you to fix what I'd rather forget

Clear the slate and start over

Try to quiet the noises in your head

We can't compete with all that

Wow, I never thought about how accurate these lyrics were.

So what if it's us?

What if it's us

And only us

And what came before won't count anymore or matter?

Can we try that?

What if it's you

And what if it's me

And what if that's all that we need it to be

And the rest of the world falls away?

What do you say?

As we danced, the world around us faded away. It was Jeremy and I against the world. Just like I hoped it would be one day.

"I can't believe this is happening." Jeremy whispered to me.

"I can." I whispered back.

I saw Jeremy blush as he buried his head into my chest. Ben Platt's voice cut in.

I never thought there'd be someone like you who would want me

Well

So I give you ten thousand reasons to not let me go

But if you really see me

If you like me for me and nothing else

Well, that's all that I've wanted for longer that you could possibly know

So it can be us

It can be us

And only us

And what came before won't count anymore or matter

We can try that

Ben Platt and Laura Dreyfuss' voices merged together beautifully.

It's not so impossible

Nobody else but the two of us here

'Cause you're saying it's possible

We can just watch the whole world disappear

'Til you're the only one

I still know how to see

It's just you and me

It then cut back to just Zoe.

It'll be us, It'll be us

And only us

And what came before won't count anymore

As the song was coming back to an end, they started singing together again.

We can try that

You and me

That's all that we need it to be

And the rest of the world falls away

And the rest of the world falls away

The world falls away

The world falls away

And it's only us

As the song ended, I kinda forgot there were other people there. I pulled Jeremy into a slow kiss and then I heard the applause of people. We parted and then looked at the people around us. A more upbeat song played. Family members came up to us and congratulated us. Reyna runs up to Jeremy and hugs him tightly.

"Hey baby Rae." Jeremy says and leaned down to hug her.

"You're married to Michael!" She exclaimed.

"I am!"

"I'm happy! I can't wait till I get married!"

Jeremy and I looked at each other before chuckling. She ran off happily.

"Wow, my cousin loves you more than me. I didn't even get a hug from her."

"Oh please, that girl loves you."

"She better."

More and more family came to say something to us and music continued to play. I got to meet some of Jeremy's family which was terrifying. They were all super nice people but they mostly talked to Jeremy. I didn't mind whatsoever.

"Hey guys!" I looked over and Rich was pulling Jake over to us.

Jake looked really embarrassed by Rich's loudness but he didn't say anything.

"Oh hey Rich, thanks for embarrassing me earlier."

"Of course, you are lucky Jake suggested I should cut some things out."

"Do I even want to know?"

Rich shrugged.

"Nevermind, that's good enough."

"I'm happy for you guys. You two are perfect for each other." Jake told us.

"Thanks Jake, someone with RESPECT."

"You said I could say whatever I wanted so...."

"You are lucky I somewhat like you as a person."

'Hey, I spoke at your wedding."

"I spoke at yours too."

"Oh yeah, you did."

I rolled my eyes.

After a lot of partying, the wedding came to an end. I had an amazing time but now I got to spend some time alone with Jeremy.

"How about we consummate the marriage?" Jeremy asked when got in my car.

I glared at him and he started laughing.

"I'm kidding...unless..."

I looked at him again and started laughing. I wanted to smack that smirk right off his face.

"You would think the horniness would fade after highschool but no, apparently it doesn't."

"Shut up! It's not my fault."

"You don't know how many times I probably almost got fired at work because you would decide to sext me in the middle of my job."

"But you always responded." Jeremy countered.

"That's because you are needy and spam text me unless I answer you."

"You are cute and I get horny, that's why."

"Wow, such a charmer."

In the end, Jeremy got his wishes. I couldn't say no to him. To be fair, I enjoyed sex just as much as he did so I didn't complain. Afterwards, Jeremy and I laid on the bed. I held him in my arms.

"Hey Micah?"

I hummed.

"I love you."

"I love you too." I said and then kissed his forehead.

I can't wait to see what the future holds for us.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never actually been to a wedding before so this is souly based on other fanfics/articles. I'm sorry I gave Rich, Jeremy and Jake horrible families. I love them :( <3


	20. THANKS FOR READING

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a bunch of me rambling so no need to read this.

Hey! Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end. I wrote this whole thing in two weeks from basically when I woke up to when I went to sleep. I wasn't going to post it but a few of my friends convinced me to post it on Wattpad. I used Wattpad a lot growing up so I thought it would be a good idea. I then remember AO3 and remembered how I also used it so I decided to post it here. I will probably post all my works on here from now on. Anyway, I'm a rambler as I've been told by my English teachers and history teachers so I'm sorry if my story got wordy at times. Also, I'm a horrible speller and even though I do proof read, I do commonly miss mistake so I'm sorry for those. I hope you enjoyed to read this as much as I enjoyed writing this. I love you guys <3  
~xoxo Maddie

(Shutout to my friends Michael and Jondee for convincing me to post this<3)

**Author's Note:**

> Hey Guys! I hope you enjoyed reading. This same story is posted on Wattpad under a different name so if you see it on there, they aren't copying it. It's just me! I hope you enjoy<3  
> Follow me on insta: ohshesnotfrench


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